£34-
THE MASSACRE OF WYOMING.
THE
ACTS OF CONGRESS
FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE WYOMING VALLEY, PENNSYLVANIA,
1776-1778 :
WITH THE PETITIONS OF THE
SUFFERERS BY THE MASSACRE OF
JULY 3, 1778,
FOR CONGRESSIONAL AID.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY
REV. HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN, M. A.
CORK BS PONDING SECRETARY WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.
WlLKES-BARRE, PA.
I895.
SEE PAGE XVIII.
THE MASSACRE OF WYOMING.
THE
ACTS OF CONGRESS
FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE WYOMING VALLEY, PENNSYLVANIA,
1776-1778 :
WITH THE PETITIONS OF THE
SUFFERERS BY THE MASSACRE OF
JULY 3, 1778,
FOR CONGRESSIONAL AID.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY
REV. HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN, M. A.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.
WILKES-BARRE, PA.
1895-
£3,34
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY
WYOMING HIST.-GEOL. SOCIETY.
PRINTED BY R. BAUR & SON,
WILKES-BARRE, PA.
CONTENTS.
PACK
Preface v
Introductory Chapter — Massacre of Wyoming vii-xxiv
Acts of Congress I
Petition of the Sufferers of Wyoming, 1837 7
Resolutions of Pennsylvania Assembly, 1837 21
Petition of Samuel Tubbs, and others 23
Act of Congress, 1838, Adverse to the Petition 24
Petition of the Sufferers of Wyoming, 1839 27
Affidavits of the Survivors of the Massacre, 1839.
Mrs. Sarah Bidlack 44
Huldah Carey 44
Bertha Jenkins 46
Sarah Myers 48
Catherine Courtright 49
Phebe Cooper 60
Colonel Edward Innian 45
Colonel George P. Ransom 50
General William Ross 61
Major Eleazar Blackmail ... 54
Rev. Benjamin Bidlack 55
Stephen Abbott 46
Ishrnael Bennett 52
Ebeuezer Marcy 53
Jose Rogers 53
Joseph Slocum -57
Cornelius Courtright 59
Anderson Dana . , 66
Elisha Harding 70, 76
Colonel Zebulon Butler's Letter to Washington 68
" " " General Hand 67
Petition of heirs of Capt. Samuel Ransom to Congress 84
Ratables of Westmoreland, 1781 78, 83
685040
PREFACE.
The contents of these pages will be new to many readers of Wyo-
ining history. The Acts of Congress relative to the defence of the
Town of Westmoreland are here fully presented for the first time
since they appeared in the Journals of Congress in 1800. The Peti
tions of the Sufferers and Survivors of the Massacre to Congress for
compensation, were published nearly sixty years ago in the" Wyoming
Republican and Farmer 's Herald" of Kingston, Pa., and in the now
very rare Congressional documents of 1838 and 1839, to be found only
in the old, established Public Libraries. These Petitions were un
doubtedly written by Hon. Charles Miner, the Historian, who in the
Wyoming Republican of August 9, 1837, over the name of "Justice,"
addressed a communication "To the People of Wyoming" urging
the presentation to Congress of such a Petition. This he followed
with other communications on the subject in the same paper
August 16, 23 and 30. To these he refers in the Introduction
to his "History of Wyoming." The meeting which adopted the first
Petition was held at Wilkes-Barre, November, 7, 1837, and the Peti
tion was first published in the "Republican" of November 15, in which
the editor states that, "The Memorial upon the first page in favour of
the Wyoming Claims, is we understand from the pen of C. Miner, Esq. ' '
Other communications from Mr. Miner, though none are signed
with his name, will be found in the Republican of May 9, and 23, and
December 5, 1839. The issue of November 22, gives in full the
Memorial of the Wyoming Settlers to the Connecticut Assembly, be"
ing in substance that to Congress of 1837. The issue of February 6,
1839, contains the Petition of 1839, with the adverse Report of Con
gress on the first Petition, dated July 2, 1838, omitting, however, the
valuable and very important references and affidavits of the survivors
included in this paper from page 39 to 77. This portion of the second
Petition was published only in the Congressional Documents of 1839.
The petition of 1837 was also published, with the omission of a page,
in Mr. Miner's "History of Wyoming," Appendix, page 75. Of the
various historians of Wyoming, only Miner, and Stone appear to have
seen the affidavits, which contain the carefully written recollections
of nearly twenty prominent and well known survivors of the Mass
acre of July 3, 1778, — material of the highest value to the student of
the history of the Revolutionary period. These documents are all
reprinted from copies in my private library. It will be noticed that
Mr. Miner in the Introduction to his History, gives especial credit
for information to the very persons whose affidavits are here presented,
indicating that these affidavits were written at his solicitation and prob
ably under his inspection.
The Introductory Chapter was printed in part, in the Library
News-letter of the Osterhout Library for July , 1893, but ishere extended
and enriched with data never before published in this section. The
original manuscript of Col. John Butler's certificate of protection to
Lieut. Scovell and his party was found among the papers of Hon. Charles
Miner, who received it from Jeptha R. Simms in 1847. The Histor
ical Society of Pennsylvania has generously loaned it to the Wyo
ming Hist.-Geol. Society for the purpose of this paper, and for exhibi
tion in the Society's collections. It appears to definitely settle the
question as to who was the Indian leader at the Massacre of Wyoming.
HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN.
WII^KES-BARRE, Pa., Feb. 18, 1895.
THE MASSACRE OF WYOMING.
No one with a love for the beautiful in nature can stand
on the top of Prospect Rock on a summer day, and gaze
upon the exquisite loveliness of the Wyoming Valley with
out a thrill of admiration. Nor will he wonder that Indians
and white men could have battled with each other for the
possession of so fair a domain
Its beauty was doubtless fa. &reater one hundred and
thirty years ago, before art had entered to change the face
of nature, when the forest was broken only here and there
by a few clearings and cabins, and the silence unbroken
except by the voices of nature. It doubtless appeared a
Paradise to the little band of colonists who came here in
1762, and were made to suffer so sorely in the Indian
Massacre of 1763. Else, why did a second colony from
Connecticut essay in 1 769 to recover what had been so
mercilessly wrested from them six years before ?
Willing to endure, as they did, a series of disasters for
the next twenty years or more, they settled, cleared, built
and sowed with the desperate resolve to retain possession
at the peril of life and fortune.
During the years preceding the Revolutionary War, from
1769 to 1775, so frequent were the conflicts resulting in
bloodshed within the town of Westmoreland, that it may be
said to have been in a state of continual war. It was a
repetition of the experience of their New England ancestors,
who went to the plow and the church with the trusty rifle
slung over their shoulder.
Becoming used to dangers however, the Wyoming people
did not neglect the means of defence needed to protect
their families. Nor were they unmindful of the events oc
curring beyond the limits of their town. The intercourse
kept up with kindred in New England did not leave them
in ignorance of the storm of war which threatened to burst
on the whole of the thirteen Colonies. News of the battles
Vlll THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
of Concord, and Lexington, promptly reached Wyoming.
On the 1st of August, 1775, the proprietors and settlers re
solved to " unanimously join our brethren in America in
the common cause of defending our liberty." And despite
the land difficulties between Pennamite and Yankee, the
settlers were thoroughly in earnest in acting upon the resolu
tions of the Continental Congress for the country's defense.
During the summer of 1774 the people built five princi
pal forts for the defense of the valley.* Major Eleazer
Blackman who aided the building of the fort at Wilkes-
Barre, enumerated them in 1838, as the " Plymouth Fort;"
the " Wilkes-Barre Fort," covering nearly half an acre, en
closing the public buildings, and formed by digging a ditch
in which logs, sharp at top, 15 or 16 feet long, were set in
on end closely together, with the corners rounded so as to
flank the fort, and with one gate ; the "Forty Fort," at
Kingston similarly planned, larger and with two gates ;
" Jenkins Fort," in Exeter township, built around the
house of John Jenkins, at the Pittston .Ferry, west side ;
" Pittston Fort," at Brown's just above the Ferry, east side;
and " Wintermoot Fort," built by the family of that name
near the head of the Valley. Beside these there were vari
ous block houses built by individuals. The Act of Con
gress, August 23, 1776, calling for two companies of troops
to serve through the war met immediate response in the
Valley, and by Sept. 17, 1776, Captains Durkee and Ran
som had each filled the quota of their respective command.
The Act of Congress specified,
"That two companies on the Continental establishment
be raised in the Town of Westmoreland and stationed in
proper places for the' defence of the inhabitants of said
Town and parts adjacent, till further orders of Congress ;
the commissioned officers of the said two companies to be
immediately appointed by Congress : —
* "Ancient Forts of the District of Wyoming." Fora full description
of the Forts the reader is referred to this exhaustive and admirable
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. IX
"That the pay of the men to be raised as aforesaid, com
mence when they are armed and mustered, and that they
be liable to serve in any part of the United States, when
ordered by Congress : —
"That the said troops be inlisted to serve during the war,
unless sooner discharged by Congress. "
Within three months after they were mustered in, De
cember 12, 1776, Congress,
" Resolved, that the two companies raised in the Town
of Westmoreland be ordered to join general Washington
with all possible expedition." Thus they became partici
pators in the various actions of the Continental Army in
New Jersey during the winter. But the Valley was left
without immediate and adequate defence against the com
mon enemy.
Meanwhile Connecticut was not entirely unmindful of
her people on the Susquehanna. The Assembly passed an
Act in October, 1776, to complete the 24th Regiment of
Connecticut Militia, to be formed of Westmoreland com
panies, and in November erected the town of Westmore
land into a County. The field officers of the 24th Regi
ment were,
Colonel; Zebulon Butler, appointed May, 1775, suc
ceeded May, 1777, by Nathan Denison promoted from
Lieutenant Colonel.
Lieutenant Colonel ; Lazarus Stewart, promoted from
Captain, May, 1777, resigned October, 1777, and succeeded
by George Dorrance, promoted from Captain, October,
1777.
Major ; John Garret, promoted from Captain, October,
1777.
The Captains of the Regiment were, James Bidlack, Dr.
William Hooker Smith, John Garret, Nathaniel Landon,
Asaph Whittlesey, Wm. McKarachan, Jeremiah Blanchard,
Rezin Geer, Stephen Harding, Robert Carr and Elijah
Farnam. Several of the companies were like the " Re-
formadoes," as Captain Wm. Hooker Smith's company was
called, formed of old men. The young men, the bone and
X THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
sinew — the chivalry of the Valley — had mainly enlisted in
the two Congress companies of Durkee and Ransom. The
defeat of the patriot forces by Howe at Brandywine, and
the New Jersey campaign of 1777 and 1778, kept these
two companies with Washington.
The situation of the inhabitants of the Wyoming Valley
was therefore at this time most deplorable. The nearest
settlements within the limits of Pennsylvania were Easton,
and Bethlehem, each 60 miles to the southward, and Sun-
bury, or Fort Augusta, 60 miles to the westward ; their
people unfriendly to the Connecticut settlers on the North
Branch of the Susquehanna, whom they regarded as
intruders.
To the north dwelt the Six Nations, as cruel as they
were crafty, whose powerful hand had wiped out in the
Massacre of 1763, the Wyoming settlement of whom the
Seneca Chief, Old King, or Sayenguaraghton, had declared,
" they have taken their land from us." Stimulated by the
thirst for revenge, and the reward offered by the British
Government for American scalps, these only awaited the
fit opportunity to make a second descent on Wyoming.
This opportunity soon offered. Colonel Daniel Clans, the
British Superintendent of Indian affairs, in his manuscript
history of Joseph Brant, written Sept. 1 778, and published for
the first time in 1 889,* stated that after the Battle of Brandy-
wine,
"The plan of Operations for the ensuing campaign was
laid and Mr. Brant determined to harass the Frontiers of
the Mohawk River abt Cherry Valley [illegible] while
Sakayenguaraghton took the Opportunity of this diversion
to cut off the settlements of Wayoming on the Susquehanna
River." (Bryant 20.)
It is true that between the Wyoming Valley and the
Mohawk region there were here and there white settlers.
But these in 1776 had received such severe treatment at
* Captain Brant and the Old King. The Tragedy of Wyoming. A
paper read before the Buffalo Historical Society, April I, 1889, by
Wra. Clement Bryant ; 8°, p. 25.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. XI
the hands of the Wyoming people that their friendship was
turned to enmity, and being Tories, eager to retaliate for
the wrongs they had suffered, they made common cause
with the Indians against the inhabitants of the Wyoming
Valley, and were doubtless important factors in the
development of Brant's plan of campaign. But it
is not certainly known that they had anything to do with
the inauguration of the Wyoming expedition.
The Glaus manuscript, which is a very important
document, was discovered by Mr. William Kirby, of
Ontario, Canada, among some 2,000 other papers
of the Revolutionary period, in the possession of
the great-grand children of Col. Clans. .It shows
conclusively that while Brant was a directing spirit
of the Indian campaign of 1778, acting in council with the
Old King, he was not himself present at Wyoming, July 3,
1778, and that Old King, or Sakayenguaraghton as he was
known, was the leader of the Indians who participated in
the Massacre. In June of that year, as the manuscript states,
"Sakayenguaraghton assembled his men at his Town
Canadasege without calling upon any white person to join
them. However the Reflections of the Officers at Niagara
roused Col. Butler to march to Sakayenguaraghton's Town
who at the same time reserved the command of his men to
himself."
This statement of Colonel Claus is significant. It does
not relieve Col. John Butler of the stigma forever fastened
upon his name by the Massacre, but it confirms his asser
tion on the day after the battle, that he could not restrain
his Indian allies from plundering the people. Miner says,
that in response to Col. Denison's remonstrance, John But
ler gave peremptory orders to the Chief; "These are your
Indians, you must restrain them;" and after an ineffectual
effort he said "I can do nothing with them." (Miner
234.)
It was therefore not Brant, but the King of the Senecas,
Sayenguaraghton, as Colonel Claus shows, who with a large
body of the Six Nations, and a detachment of Tories from
Sir John Johnston's Royal Greens under the command of
Xll THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Colonel John Butler, in all from 900 to 1,200 strong,
appeared at the head of the Wyoming Valley, June 30,
1778, and took peaceable possession of Fort Wintermoot
whose occupants were always suspected of Tory proclivi
ties. In Fort Jenkins there were then only seventeen de
fenders, mostly aged persons, including the Jenkinses, the
Hardings, (Captain Stephen, Stephen Jr., Benjamin and
Stukeley) James Hudsall, Samuel Morgan, Ichabod Philips,
Miner Robbins, John Gardner and Daniel Carr.
On the morning of the 3Oth, eight of these, armed with
only two guns, went to the field to work. Returning at
evening they were fired on by the Indians. Two of the
Hardings were killed. Elisha Harding in his statement
says, " they fought bravely as long as they could stand, but
being overpowered by numbers were cut to pieces in the
most shocking manner, many holes of the spears in their
sides, their arms cut to pieces, tomahawked, scalped and
their throats cut." Others were captured, thus leaving but
ten persons in the Fort; two of them were old men, and
three boys. On the 2nd of July when John Butler de
manded the surrender of the Fort, it was seen that resist
ance was useless and the surrender was made.
Meanwhile the news of Butler's invasion had aroused the
settlers in the Valley, who hastily assembled at Forty Fort,
the largest and strongest defensive post in the Valley.
Colonel Zebulon Butler, then here on furlough from the
Continental Army, was immediately placed in command.
His experience as a soldier for twenty years made his ser
vices at this moment invaluable. His military career began
soon after he had reached the age of twenty-one. He was
made an Ensign by the Connecticut Assembly, May, 8,
1758, (although his diary, still in the hands of his descend
ants, begun June, 1757, on*the day when he started in his
first campaign, records his rank at that time as " Ensign.")
Lieutenant 1759, Captain 1760, serving through the French
and Indian War, participating in the eventful expedition to
Havanna, 1761. When the battle of Lexington occurred
he was a member of the Connecticut Assembly, and was at
once commissioned Colonel of the 24th Connecticut Regi-
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. Xlll
merit. At this time, July 3, 17/8, he was Lieutenant Col
onel of the 3rd Connecticut. Regiment, Continental Line,
having been appointed January I, 1778. He was promoted
Colonel, Nov. 15, 1778, to date from March 13, 1778. He
had been a participator in the actions at Danbury, Conn.,
White Marsh, Pa., etc., and had won the confidence and
friendship of Washington. He was said to have been a kins
man of the Loyalist John Butler commanding the forces
now invading the Valley, but it has not been proven. On
the morning of July 3rd, a council of war was held in Forty
Fort, when Colonel Zebulon Butler advised delay until the
companies of Spalding and Franklin could reach the Val
ley. But this council was opposed by Lieutenant Colonel
Lazarus Stewart, then in command of Captain McKarach-
an's company, who urged the desperate measure of antici
pating the enemy's attack by a surprise. Colonels Deni-
son and Dorrance coincided with Colonel Butler, but the
majority agreed with Stewart, (who nobly laid down his life
in the battle that day,) and Colonel Butler reluctantly con
sented.
About 3 o'clock that afternoon the Americans left the
fort and advanced in search of the enemy, their line of bat
tle extending from the marsh to the river a distance of
about 1600 feet, Colonel Zebulon Butler commanding the
right, and Colonels Denison and Dorrance the left. The
advance was made with spirit, and the British purposely
fell back until the Americans were drawn to a point in the
field where their left wing, opposed by the Indians, was ex
posed to a flank movement. Then Sayenqueraghton with
his savage warriors gained the rear of Colonel Denison's
wing and suddenly fell upon his men. Colonel Denison at
once perceived his danger, and ordered Whittlesey's com
pany to fall back so as to form an angle with the main line.
The order was misunderstood as one to "retreat." The
mistake was fatal, the falling back became a retreat, the re
treat a panic, and the massacre followed, the Indians pur
suing the flying troops and attacking them with terrible
slaughter. Historians say that the British line "gave way
XIV THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
before the galling fire of the Americans in spite of all their
officers' efforts to prevent it." It is a singular fact that
only two white men in Colonel John Butler's command were
killed, and the casualties included about a dozen Indians.
Doubtless the falling back of the British line before the fire
of the patriots was a part of their plan of battle. Colonel
Claus, in the document referred to, supra, dated Nov. 1778,
says, that while Brant was devastating Schenectady and
Cherry Valley,
"Sakayenquaraghton at the same time put his plan in
Execution, making every preparation, Disposition and
Maneouvre with his Indus himself and when the Rebels
of Wayoming came to attack him desired Col. Butler to
keep his people separate from his for fear of Confusion and
stood the whole Brunt of the Action himself, for there were
but two white men killed [illegible]. And then destroyed
the whole Settlement without hurting or molesting Woman
or Child, wch these two Chiefs, to their honour be it said,
agreed upon before they [went into] Action in the
Spring."
This confirms Colonel Stone's statement, viz : " It does
not appear that anything like a massacre followed the capit
ulation." And Mr. Jenkins in his address of July 3, 1878,
acknowledges that, "So far as known to the people here,
not a woman or child was slain by the enemy in the
Valley."
But it does not disprove the fact that between the 3rd
of July and the morning of the 4th of July, there was a
massacre of the male settlers, and of the Americans en
gaged in the conflict of the 3rd of July, equalling anything
of the kind in Indian history for cruelty and atrocity ! The
capitulation of the Americans occurred on the 4th of July
at Forty Fort, and on the 8th, John Butler withdrew from
the Valley with his command, and with 227 scalps which
he reported as taken at Wyoming. These scalps, valued
and paid for by the British at $10 apiece, in all $2,270,
were not merely the scalps of men killed in actual combat.
The highest estimate of the slain given by American re-
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. XV
ports, and certified by the list on the Monument, is 182,
leaving forty-five of the number reported by John Butler
unaccounted for.
The latest history of the Massacre by Colonel Bradsby*
states that "'it is pretty generally conceded that the story
of Queen Esther and the Bloody Rock were without foun
dation ; that the Queen was not there at all." That the
Colonel did not exhaust all the official sources of informa
tion in his search is evident. Not only does ]\liner(p. 232,)
give proof of Queen Esther's presence at Wyoming but the
testimony of the survivors of the Massacre, Colonels
Ransom and Ross, given in the following pages, as to the
bloody rock is indisputable.
Mrs. Jenkins, the widow of Colonel John Jenkins, in her
statement made to Congress in 1838, says: "The next
day (July 4th,) she went down to the battle ground * * *
where Philip Wintermoot, a Tory whom she was well ac
quainted with said to her, ' Look, but don't seem to see.'
The dead lay all around and there were places where half-
burnt legs and arms showed the cruel torture our poor
people must have suffered." (p. 46.)
Colonel George P. Ransom, 14 years old at the time of
the battle, testifies that after the battle " we went in with
Colonel Butler and helped to bury the dead as soon as it
could be done. The battle field presented a distressing
sight ; in a ring round a rock there lay 1 8 or 20 mangled
bodies. Prisoners taken on the field were placed in a cir
cle surrounded by Indians, and a squaw set to butcher them.
Lebbeus Hammond, for many years afterward a respect
able citizen of Tioga County, New York, was one of the
doomed. Seeing one after another perish by her bloody
hand he sprang up, broke through the circle, outstripped
his pursuers and escaped." (p. 50.)
Ishmael Bennet testifies that he was at Pittston Fort
when it capitulated. "St. John and Leach were moving
off with their goods, St. John was tomahawked, and Leach
* History of L/uzcrne County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Se
lections, H. C. Bradsby, Editor, 1893.
XVI THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
had his child in his arms. The Indians tomahawked him
and gave the child to its mother. On the night after the
battle, seeing fires under some large oaks near the river,
he with his father, Squire Whitaker and old Captain
Blanchard, went down to the river side, they could see
naked white men running around the fire, could hear the
cries of agony, could see the savages following them with
their spears, it was a dreadful sight." (p. 52.)
General W*m. Ross, aged 17 at the time of the battle,
testifies to what he saw on the field. "The scene was
shocking. There were two rings where prisoners had been
massacred. There were according to his recollection 9
bodies in one and in the other 14." (p. 61.)
If to "massacre" means, as Webster defines it, "to mur
der with circumstances of cruelty," the question as to
whether the Massacre of Wyoming preceded the capitula
tion of Forty Fort, or followed it is hypercritical. No hist
orian has yet published the "Petition of the Sufferers of
Wyoming, Pennsylvania, by depredations committed by
the Indians in the Revolutionary War," presented to the
25th Congress, containing the statements of Mrs. Sarah
Bidlack, Mrs. Huldah Carey, Mrs. Bertha Jenkins, Mrs.
Myers, Mrs. Courtright, Edward Inman, Stephen Abbot,
Geo. P. Ransom, Ishmael Bennett, Ebenezer Marcy, Jose
Rogers, Eleazer Blackman, Rev. Benjamin Bidlack, Joseph
Slocum, Cornelius Courtright, Mrs. Phoebe Cooper, Gen.
Wm. Ross, Anderson Dana, Elisha Harding. Many writers
of Wyoming history have evidently never read this Petition
with its overwhelming testimony of 19 eye-witnesses. The
sufferings endured by the women and children on this fate
ful 3d of July, and the week following it, cannot be esti
mated. Exaggerated as some of the early relations of the
sufferings may have been, there is truth enough in the vari
ous authentic accounts and records to justify the statement,
that language fails to give an adequate description of them.
Could the survivors of the Massacre of Wyoming have an
ticipated the destructive criticism of the present day, cast
ing doubt on so many statements of fact universallyknown
in 1778, they would assuredly have fortified their state-
THE WYOMING MASSACRE XV11
ments with sworn affidavits. A century had hot passed
over the bloody field of Wyoming ere it became necessary for
the grandson of Giles Slocum, in a letter now before me, to
asseverate the truth of the fratricidal murder of Henry Pencil,
received by him from the lips of his grandfather well known
as a man of cautious and accurate speech. One can find no
word of denial of the narratives of Chapman or Miner made
during the lives of the survivors of the Massacre. Nor did
Congress in rejecting their appeal, in any way question the
accuracy of its statements.
Very strong corroborative evidence of Old King's lead
ership at the Massacre has come into the writer's hands
since the above was written, in the shape of an original do
cument from Colonel John Butler.
It will be remembered that Fort Wintermoot was prompt
ly surrendered to the enemy at the first demand. This
fort was in command of Lieutenant Elisha Scovell, of the
Seventh company, 24th Connecticut Regiment, Stephen
Harding, Captain. Scovell was a patriot, but the Winter-
moots and others in the fort were Tories, and the fort was
surrendered to Butler through their treachery, July I,
1778, Miner gives on page 2=54, a
"Copy of the Articles of Capitulation, for Wintermoot' s
Fort, July I, 1778.
"Art. ist. That Lieut. Elisha Scovell surrender the Fort,
with all the stores, arms and ammunition, that are in said
fort, as well public as private, to Major John Butler.
"201. That the garrison shall not bear arms during the
present contest ; and Major Butler promises that the men,
women and children shall not be hurt, either by Indians or
Rangers."
Butler retired from the Valley on the 8th of July. On
the 5th he gave to Lieut. Scovell the following certificate
of protection from Indians and Rangers. This important
document came into the hands of the late Jeptha R.
Simms, Esq., of Fort Plains, New York, who in 1847 pre
sented it through Hon. Charles Miner to the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania. It was found in Mr. Miner's
THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
papers after his death, and indeed after the death of Mr.
Wm. P. Miner. So that its existence was doubtless un
known to the latter gentleman.
Through the great kindness of the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania I have obtained the privilege of using it, and
retaining it in the Wyoming Historical and Geological
Society until the first Society shall recall it. It is as
follows :
"Weftmoreland 5th July 1778
This doth hereby certify that Lieut Elif ha
Scovell has Surrendered his Garrison with all
his people to Geovernment and to remain
as Neuteral during this prefent conteft with
Great Britain and America, on confideration
of which Col. John Butler Superintendent
of the Six Nations of Indians their Allies &c,
with Kayingwaurto the Chief of the Sanake
Nation and the other Chief Warriors of the
Six Nations do promife that they shall live
in the quiet pofsefsion of their places with
their Families and shall be daily protected
from infult as far as lies in their Power
and provided they should be taken it is
our defire that they may forthwith be
Releafed.
[Seal] JOHN BUTLER.
[a turtle.] KAYINGWAURTO "
Endorsed, "This paper presented through Charles
Miner, Esq., of Wilkes-Barre to the Historical Society of
the State of Pennsylvania by
J. R. Simms.
Fultonville, Montgomery Co., N. Y., May 31, 1847."
Endorsed on the back " Convention of Whyoming."
(See frontispiece.)
This manuscript, the paper on which it is written, its
bearing on the terms of the capitulation of Wintermoot
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. XIX
Fort, the totem of the Indian leader who authorized his
name to be attached to it, carries conviction of its authen
ticity on its face. It shows beyond a doubt that Sayenqua-
raghta, or Kayingvvaurto, as Old King was called, was in
command of the Indians who united with Col. John Butler
in the invasion of the Wyoming Valley in July, I/7&-
It will be remembered that the Hon. Steuben- Jenkins,
who clung tenaciously to the belief that Brant was the leader
in the massacre of Wyoming, stated in his Historical Ad
dress at the Monument, July 3, 1878, that " five hundred
Indians, commanded by Kayingwaurto, a Seneca Chief, and
Capt. Joseph Brandt a Mohawk, descended the Susque-
hanna river in boats, and landed near the mouth of Bow
man's Creek, where they remained some time waiting for
the West Branch party to join them. This party consisted
of about two hundred Indians under the command of Gu-
cingerachten, a Seneca Chief. After the junction of all the
forces, numbering altogether about eleven hundred, they
moved forward to the invasion of Wyoming."
Mr. George S. Conover, (Hywesaus) of Geneva, New
York, who has given much research to this matter, pub
lished in 1886, a paper which he had prepared and read
before the Cayuga Historical Society, March 28, 1885, en
titled, "Sayenqueraghta, King of the Senecas." In this
paper he decided that Sayenqueraghta or Old King, was
not the leader in the attack on the Wyoming settlement.
In November, 1886, he published a supplement in which
he states that, " Information lately received is quite con
clusive that the statement of March, 1885, was erroneous,
and the fact is now established that Old King was not only
the instigator of the expedition but was the actual leader
of the Indians on the occasion,, and was a much greater
man than history ever gave him credit for being."
In the paper published in 1 886, Mr. Conover prints the cer
tificate of Butler and Kayingwaurto, stating that Mr. Simms
claimed on the strength of it that Kayingwaurto, a Seneca
Chief commanded the Indians at Wyoming. But he
adds :
XX THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
" The name Kayingwaurto, although similar to Gienguah-
to could not possibly have reference to Old King. Col
onel Butler was a man of education familiar with the Mo
hawk dialect and with the records of the proceedings with
the Indians. He perfectly well knew that the name of the
principal Seneca Chief was Sayenqueraghta and would thus
have written it, had it referred to Old King, as some have
asserted."
These statements led me to write to William C. Bryant,
Esq., and also to Mr. Conover, when the certificate came
into my hands, giving them an account of it, and my rea
sons for believing in its authenticity. Both gentlemen
promptly replied, and their replies are so full and so much
to the point, conceding the claim which had been made by
Mr.Simms that I give both letters here with much gratifi
cation.
Mr. Bryant wrote me thus :
Buffalo, February 8, 1895.
My Dear Sir : —
I have your favor of the 1st instant touching the
name of the Indian Chief joined with that of Colonel
Butler in an ancient protection Certificate. I have no
doubt it is that of the Old King who at the time was the
pronounced leader and Chief of the Iroquois warriors, not
even excepting Brant. He was one of nature's great men.
His name varies in its etymology, in our old treaties it is
rendered, Kay-an-der-en-qua ; Kayinguaraghtoh ; Cagen-
quarichton ; Kajugariciten ; Sayenqueragha ; Sayengar-
agta, etc., etc. The final syllables in your word, "waurto"
are supposed to represent "raghta" that is "Sayengaraghta"
in which way the word is usually rendered.
Indian words are usually badly mangled by the official
interpreters. The Iroquois dialects are written phonetic
ally generally, and sometimes with the French alphabet to
represent nasal and gutteral words which defy the powers
of our English alphabet. The letters " K" and"^" and
" G " and " W" are frequently interchanged. Then the
Indians frequently clip or abridge their words in rapid pro-
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. XXI
nunciation. It being an unwritten language it was quite
liable to such changes and misapprehensions. The initial
syllable " Sa" or "Safe" would very likely be dropped
colloquially. I have often noticed this habit among care
ful Indian speakers. * * * * " Kayingivaurto " I have
little doubt was intended for Old King, Sa-yen-ga-rah-ta,
as it is frequently spelled. Still there may be some mis
take, but that he signed the document, or authorized his
name to be attached to it is very certain. " Waur-to"
" Ragh-to ; " O has the short sound represented by " toh."
It is never a long O at the end of a syllable ; and is hardly
distinguished from " uh" or " a/i."
Yours very truly,
WM. C. BRYANT.
Mr. Conover wrote to me under date of February 13,
1895.
My Dear Sir:
I enclose a leaflet [the supplement referred to above]
relating to the " Old King " matter, which materially
changes some of the conclusions I arrived at in my pam
phlet, and emphatically settles the matter as to who was the
Indian leader at Wyoming. There is in addition a very
large mass in the Canadian Library at Ottawa of original
documents which throw a great deal of light on this matter,
and very emphatically and frequently is Old King's name
mentioned as being the principal Indian leader at Wyom
ing and in all the deviltry that was committed during the
revolution. * * * In these papers the names Sanger-
achta, Sekayenguaraghton, Sayengwaraghton, Cayengua-
raghton is directly named in some instances as Old King.
In 1779 or 1788 Lord George Germaine sent a commission
signed by the King appointing Brant as a Colonel of Ind
ians, and a " box with prints, taken from Lord Warwick's
picture of him, some of which you will send into his nation,
and dispose of the others as you think most honourable for
him, as a memorial of his services." Upon the receipt of
this the Governor of Canada replied :
XX11 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
" I have received His Majesty's commission for Joseph
Brant, and your Lordship observes very justly that his con
duct merits every mark of our attention and regard, but
Joseph's situation amongst the Six Nation Indians is very
different from the idea those who are not acquainted with
it must from his superior talents conceive. To speak in
their style, he has been veiy lately known on the war path.
He is now distinguishing himself in that line, but it will be
some time before he is acknowledged by them even upon
a footing with very many (as they conceive) more exper
ienced and greater warriors, besides the notice that has
been taken by us in consequence of his connection with
Sir William Johnson, his being civilized, and more particu
larly for his good services, has, from a jealousy paramount
among the Indians, procured as many enemies among his
own people as friends. Among this number is Schender-
achto, King of the Senecas, and by many degrees the most
leading, and the man of most consequence and influence,
in the whole of the Six Nations, and by whose interest and
intrigues Major Butler has been able to carry through
many essential points. He is brave, prudent and perfectly
attached to Government, more strongly so since the alli
ance with the French, to whom he has an unconquerable
aversion. Were so great a mark of distinction as is pro
posed for Joseph to pass him it might, and I am sure it
would, be productive of very dangerous consequences, for
which reason I must take it upon me to suppress the com
mission and likewise the pictures until I have His Majesty's
further pleasure. I should hope this affair has not been so
publicly mentioned at home as to reach Joseph's know
ledge, which from the past I find necessary to adopt, would
equally prejudice the service."
From what I have written, and from the great mass of
conclusive evidence that Old King was the Indian leader at
Wyoming, and with all the knowledge that we now have it
is evident to my mind that Kayingwaurto was in fact Old
King. It cannot be otherwise. * * *
Yours truly
GEO. S, CONOVER,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. XX111
In conclusion, Mr. Cruikshank in his paper entitled
" Butler's Rangers, the Revolutionary Period," published
by the Lundy's Lane Historical Society, Ontario, 1893,
gives the name of the Indian leader at Wyoming as San-
gcrachta. Mr. Conover's interesting pamphlet, " Sayen-
queraghta," quoting from public documents, and other au
thorities, gives twenty-seven different ways in which the
name of Old King was written, i. e. :
Sayenqueraghta ; Sakayenkwaraton ; Sakaycnqwaraghton;
Sakayengwaratohn ; Sakayengwaraghtong ; Soiengarahta ;
Sionggorochti ; Sayenquarahta ; Sakayengwalaghton ; Sa-
kayenquaraghta ; Sakayenguaraghdon ; Sakayengwaraton ;
Siangorochti ; Cayenquaraghta ; Gajinquechto ; Guiyar-
gwaahdo ; Guiyaguadoh ; Guyanguahta ; Giengwahtoh ;
Koyingquatah ; Guyahgwaahdoh ; Gayaeguadoh ; Guyan-
guahto ; Giengwahtoh ; Guiyahgwaahdoh ; Kayenquaragh-
ton ; Kayinguaraghtoh : Compare witfr these the name in
the above certificate, KAYINGWAURTO, and the identi
fication of the name with nearly a dozen of the above
names of Old King must be immediately apparent.
It will not be inappropriate to mention another fact in
this connection that somewhat relieves the name of Brant
from some of the charges of cruelty which history has
recorded against him.
The Glaus manuscript is dated " Niagara, Sep., 1778,"
and therefore does not touch upon the Cherry Valley mass
acre in which Brant is always spoken of as the leader, and
to whom all the atrocities of that expedition have been cred
ited. But the following letter, dictated by the famous
Molly Brant the sister of the Indian Chief, shows that Say
enqueraghta, and not Brant, was the leader of the Indians
at Cherry Valley, 1778. This letter has been very kindly
sent to me by William Clement Bryant, Esq., with his notes
and permission to publish it. It confirms Col. Stone's state
ment of Brant's connection with Cherry Valley. Molly
Brant was the Indian wife of Sir William Johnson, of whose
relations with her an interesting story is told by Col. Stone. *
* Ivife of Joseph Brant, Vol. I, Chapter xvii, 369-395.
XXIV THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Letter from Captain John Deseronto to Col. Claus, now
in possession of William Kirby, Niagara, Ontario, trans
lated from the Mohawk by Isaac Bearfoot
My Elder Brother
I received just now a letter from Mary Degonwadinti.1
She says : Tell the Governor that I have heard that
Oraghgwatrihon2 is coming back again.
She says : I want to hear what happened to his band
who were with him on the Lake.
She says : Governor Asharekowa. I greet and thank
him much for what he did. His message is here at Niag
ara. His words are very pleasant. Tell him therefore,
Brother, that the people of the Long House are much
gratified.
She also says :.We are now awaiting what will happen
to the whole Long House.
About 500 left here October 23rd for Karitongeh.4 They
said in 8 days Karitongeh will be destroyed, Sayenguaragh-
don5 is their leader.
To Col. Claus, Montreil,
I, John Desserontyon6 have written this,
La Chine, Dec. 3d, 1778.
(Endorsed "Mary Brant to Col. Claus.")
1. "Many-against-one," Indian name of Mary Brant.
2. Identity of this officer unknown.
3. "Asharekowa," General Haldiman, otherwise "Big Sword."
4. "Place-of-the-oaks," Cherry Valley.
5. "Old King."
6. "Deseronto," "The-L,ightning-has-struck."
THE
ACTS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
FOR THE
DEFENCE OF THE WYOMING VALLEY, PA.,
1776-1778.
The Act of Congress of August, 1776, was called forth
by the following appeal from the Pennsylvania Convention :
"In Convention for the State of Pennsylvania,
Tuesday, August i, 1776, A. M.
The Committee appointed to consider the Petition and
Memorial from Northumberland County, reported that the
facts therein set forth are well supported by evidence ; and
therefore recommend the immediate consideration thereof
to this Convention.
And the house having deliberated thereon, it was
Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention tnat
the inhabitants of the said County and of the County of
Northampton are greatly exposed to Indian incursions,
without being able to make a proper defence, on account
of the scattered situation of the inhabitants, they being
settled in such a manner as to be unable to afford each
other necessary assistance.
Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention that
it will be proper to raise and keep up a body of troops for
the defence of the frontier, not only of the County of North
umberland, but also of the County of Northampton, the
latter County being equally exposed to Indian incursions.
Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention that
the defenceless situation of those parts of our frontiers be
2 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
made known to the Congress by the Delegates of this State,
and that they further inform them that the Battalion ordered
to be raised for the defence of the western frontier can
afford no assistance to those two Counties, and that the
quota of the Militia of Northampton first required for the
Flying Camp, is already marched, and the residue of the
Militia is about to march, agreeable to the late request of
Congress ; by which means they will be without the least
defence, and request Congress to take these matters into
consideration." (Force, Fifth series, i, 709.)
At the 'Sfirne time that the Pennsylvania Convention pre-
-sented" this action to Congress the settlers at Wyoming,
th:rp.yg.h ; Colonel 'Zebulon Butler, applied to Congress for
$!£'• defence' of 'the Town of Westmoreland. In the Penn
sylvania Archives, vi, 371, will be found a letter from Hon.
Jonathan B. Smith, member of Congress from Pennsylvania,
to the "President of the State of Pennsylvania," dated
"York Town, March iQth, 1778," in which he says:
"Upon an application from the settlers at Wyoming, or as
they call it, 'The Town of Westmoreland,' Congress agreed
to establish one Company of troops there for its immediate
defence for one year. Congress has expressed this in the
same terms in which a similar resolution passed two years
ago, and which I believe was adopted on the consent of
the Delegates from Connecticut and this State ; at the same
time establishments were formed for the defence of the
other frontiers by establishing other corps both with regard
to Pennsylvania and Virginia."
AUGUST 23, 1776.
"The Delegates from Pennsylvania and Connecticut, to
whom the applications from the Convention of Pennsylva
nia, and the inhabitants settled under Connecticut, in the
town of Westmoreland, was referred, brought in a Report
which was taken into consideration ;
Whereupon, Resolved, That six companies on the Con
tinental Establishment be raised in Pennsylvania, and posted
along the frontiers of the Counties of Northampton and
Northumberland, and parts adjacent, till further orders of
Congress.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 3
That suitable persons be recommended to Congress by
the Convention of Pennsylvania for a Lieutenant Colonel
and Major, to command the said Forces and that the said
Convention appoint the Captains and Subalterns.
That two Companies on the Continental Establishment
be raised in the Town of Westmoreland, and stationed in
proper places for the defence of the inhabitants of the said
Town and parts adjacent, till further orders of Congress ;
the Commissioned Officers of the said two Companies to be
immediately appointed by Congress.
That the pay of the men to be raised as aforesaid, com
mence when they are armed and mustered, and that they
be liable to serve in any part of the United States, when
ordered by Congress.
That the said troops be inlisted to serve during the war,
unless sooner discharged by Congress." (Journals of Con
gress ii, 306, ii, 307.)
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1 7/6.
"Congress proceeded to the election of sundry Officers,
when Jonathan Dayton was elected Regimental Paymaster
of Colonel Dayton's Battalion ; Robert Durkee and Samuel
Ransom were elected Captains of the two Companies
ordered to be raised in the Town of Westmoreland ; James
Wellis and Perin Ross First Lieutenants ; Ashbel Buck and
Simon Spalding, Second Lieutenants, and Heman Swift and
Matthew Hollomback Ensigns of the said Companies."
AUGUST 27, 1776.
"Resolved, That Zebulon Butler Esq., be appointed to
supply the two Companies ordered to be raised in the Town
of Westmoreland with provisions ; and that he be allowed
therefor at the rate of i-i 2th part of a dollar per ration,
until further orders of Congress." (ii, 307-3 10. )
AUGUST 27, 1776.
"On application from the Convention of the State of
Pennsylvania,
Resolved, That 100,000 Dollars be lent to the said Con
vention of Pennsylvania, to be put into the hands of the
Council of Safety, the said State to be accountable.
4 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Resolved, That the secret Committee be directed to send
to captain Durkee 200 Ib of powder and a proportionable
quantity of lead for the use of the Westmoreland Compa
nies." (ii 307.)
SEPTEMBER IO, 1/76.
" Resolved, That 4,000 dollars be sent to Zebulon Butler
Esq : for the use of the two Companies ordered to be raised
in the Town of Westmoreland, he to be accountable for
the same, and that the money be delivered to and forwarded
by the Connecticut delegates.
That major William Judd be authorized to muster the
said companies." (ii. 329.)
OCTOBER 31, 1776.
"Resolved, That 2,000 dollars be advanced to colonel
Zebulon Butler for the use of the two Companies raised in
the Town of Westmoreland, he to be accountable.
That leave be granted to colonel Z. Butler, or his agent,
to purchase of the salt belonging to the continent, fifty
bushels, for the use of the continental troops raised in
Westmoreland." (ii, 411.)
DECEMBER 12, 1776.
" Resolved, That the two companies raised in the Town of
Westmoreland be ordered to join General Washington with
all possible expedition." (ii, 466.)
APRIL n, 1777.
"Resolved, That 175 fire arms, either musquets or rifles,
200 wt powder, 800 wt of lead, and 500 flints be sent to
the town of Westmoreland on the east branch of the Sus-
quehanna river, to the care of colonel Nathan Dennison, to
be used by the malitia there for the defence of the said
town, if necessary ; the arms to be returned when the
service there will admit of it." (iii, 104.)
MARCH 1 6, 1778.
"Resolved, That one full company of foot be raised in the
town of Westmoreland, on the east branch of the Susque-
hannah, for the defence of the said town and the settlements
on the frontier in the neighbourhood thereof, against the
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. $
Indians and the enemies of these States ; the said company
to be enlisted to serve one year from the time of their
enlisting, unless sooner discharged by Congress.
That officers be commissioned only in proportion to the
number of men who shall be enlisted.
That the same pay and rations be allowed to the com
pany as to officers of the like rank and soldiers in the Con
tinental army.
That the commissary general of purchases contract with
a suitable person to supply the company with provisions.
That the company find their own arms, accoutrements,
clothes and blankets.
That the colonel, and in his absence, the next command
ing field officer of the militia at the said town of Westmore
land be desired and empowered to superintend the said
company ; give orders relative to the stations it shall take for
the defence of the country, or other proper military services,
and to see that the officers and men faithfully perform their
duty and on failure to give notice thereof to the board of
war." (iv, 113.)
TUESDAY, JUNE 23,
''The board of war report, "that the two independent
companies raised in the town of Westmoreland, lately
commanded by the captains Durkee and Ransom, are
reduced by various causes to about 86 non-commissioned
officers and privates ; and that there is no chance of their
being completed to the establishment; that the said com
panies are now detached from the main army for the defence
of the frontiers ; " whereupon,
Resolved, That the two independent companies, lately
commanded by the captains Durkee and Ransom, which
were raised in the town of Westmoreland, be united and
form one company :
That Lieutenant Simon Spalding be appointed captain,
and Lieutenants Timothy Pierce and Phineas Pierce, lieu
tenants of said company; the said lieutenants to rank,
6 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Timothy Pierce from the i6th of Jan. last, and Phineas
Pierce from the 1st of April last, the times they were
respectively appointed to act as lieutenants in the said
companies.
A report from the board of war was read; whereupon,
Resolved, That each non-commissioned officer and soldier
who hath enlisted or shall enlist in the company of foot
ordered to be raised in the town of Westmoreland, on the
east branch of the Susquehanna, by the resolution of the
1 6th of March last, shall receive the sums for finding his
own arms, accoutrements and blankets, as were allowed by
a resolve of the i6th inst. to the non-commissioned officers
and soldiers of the two regiments raising in Virginia and
Pennsylvania, to serve for one year; the said sums to be
paid them immediately upon their passing muster before
the colonel, or in his absence, the next commanding officer
of the militia in the said town, and producing the necessary
articles of equipment mentioned in the said resolve of the
1 6th inst.
That the sum of 1,440 dollars be granted to the board of
war, to be issued to Col. Dennison, of Westmoreland afore
said, to enable him to pay the allowances above-mentioned ;
he to be accountable for the same." (iv, 263, 264.)
THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
25TH CONGRESS, [DOC. No. 52.] Ho. OF REPS.
2d Session.
WYOMING CLAIMS— REVOLUTION.
PETITION
OF
The Sufferers at Wyoming, During the Revolutionary War,
for relief.
DECEMBER 29, 1837.
Referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.
To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States in Congress Assembled:
By order of a public meeting held at Wilkesbarre, Luzerne
county, Pennsylvania, the subscribers present you the fol
lowing memorial in behalf of the Wyoming sufferers during
the revolutionary war, their heirs, widows, and legal repre
sentatives.
The circumstances of the invasion of the Wyoming settle
ment by the British and Indians, the battle and massacre,
the entire expulsion of the inhabitants, the conflagration of
their dwellings, and the devastation of their fields, are pre
sumed to be familiar to all of you. In the annals of that
fearful but glorious conflict, not a page recounts a livelier
devotion to the cause of liberty, or depicts a bloodier field,
deeper sufferings, or more extensive losses of property.
Every historian who has written an account of the revolu
tionary war has told the story of her sufferings. All
America and Europe were filled, at the time, with the
melancholy details. It is not our purpose to awaken your
sympathies ; but so much we thought proper to say by way
8 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
of introduction. Our appeal shall be made to your judg
ments. We would address facts to your reason, and argu
ments to your understanding; looking to your deliberate
iudgments for a favorable response to our petition.
The Wyoming settlements were made under the authority
of Connecticut. A town called Westmoreland was erected
here, attached to the county of Litchfield, near three
hundred miles distant ; the laws of Connecticut prevailed ;
civil and military officers derived their commissions from
that State ; representatives were sent from here to her
Legislature ; and the troops raised in Westmoreland were
part of the Connecticut line on the continental establish
ment. Several towns of Connecticut were burnt by the
enemy ; New London, Danbury, Westmoreland, Fairfield,
Groton, and others, were among the number. Connecticut
has made all of those towns, except one, full and ample
remuneration for their losses. Westmoreland, or Wyoming,
alone, received nothing. Five hundred thousand acres of
land, in the Western Reserve, were granted in 1792 to
those towns, valued at 6s. %d. (a French crown,) per acre
— amounting to between five and six hundred thousand
dollars. This was a beneficent act on the part of Connec
ticut, and will redound, in all future time, to her honor. Was
not the grant also just, as well as beneficent ? Did not the
recipients deserve, were they not entitled to, this grant? Was
not their claim founded in the principles of eternal equity
and everlasting justice? Who ever heard a doubt expressed
of the righteousness of their claim ? If, then, it was just
and equitable that New London, Danbury, Fairfield, and
those other towns, should be indemnified, is it not clear as
demonstration, that Westmoreland or Wyoming, where a
heavier sacrifice of life, far deeper personal sufferings, and
more extensive losses, were sustained, was also entitled to
remuneration ?
We anticipate here that honorable members may say,
"Your claim is doubtless just; standing on its own merits
of services, sufferings, and losses, it is a strong claim ; and
when it is considered relatively to those other towns of
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 9
Connecticut provided for, it appears of unquestionable
validity. But when your parent State was making so ample
provision for others similarly situated, why did not you
not then apply to her for aid ? While we admit the claim
just, we cannot see, as yet, how the General Government
can be held liable to make you compensation." To this
we would reply, with all truth and simplicity :
The reason why no provision was made for Westmore
land is simple, and easily told. About the conclusion of
the war, by the decree of Trenton, which settled the long-
existing controversy in respect to these lands, the jurisdic
tion over Westmoreland ceased in Connecticut, and was
transferred to Pennsylvania. It was not until about ten
years after this event, that Connecticut so far recovered her
resources as to be able to make remuneration to those
suffering towns which she indemnified. Being no longer a
portion of the State, no provision was made for us, as there
doubtless would have been, had Westmoreland continued
a component part of Connecticut.
Pennsylvania, with a liberality and public spirit most
honorable to her patriotism and justice, has granted ample
rewards to officers and soldiers of her line, and to others
whose merits and sufferings in the cause commended them
to her consideration. Not having been harmoniously a
part of Pennsylvania, but maintaining an attitude of oppo
sition, if not of hostility, during, and indeed for some time
after the war, it could not be asked or expected that she
would make good the losses, or grant rewards for the suffer
ings, of the Wyoming people. So that, to use a common
but expressive phrase, " between two stools we came to the
ground." Moreover, the disasters of the war utterly pros
trated the people of Wyoming. Most of our natural
guardians and protectors were slain, and amongst them
many of our chief men ; widows and orphans, aged or very
young men, destitute and poor, constituted our chief popu
lation. The unhappy dispute (since so satisfactorily adjusted
by our present parent and protector, noble and liberal
Pennsylvania) still continued, as you doubtless know, to
IO THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
perplex and impoverish us. To obtain "this day our daily
bread" occupied the thoughts and exertions of us all, and
no application was made to Connecticut to share in the
bounty she was so liberally dispensing. But we ask your
patience while we show, as we are sure we can, that to the
General Government we have a right fairly to look for aid.
The services performed, the sufferings endured, and the
losses sustained, were all in the public service, for the
general cause. They all tended to the great end of accom
plishing national independence, which has brought pros
perity so unbounded to our beloved country. All the
debts founded on contract having been paid, Congress have
recently, with just and liberal hand, been meting out to
claimants, not by contract, but in equity, liberal rewards for
services performed, sufferings endured, or losses sustained.
In those three particulars, no claim can be stronger than
that of Wyoming.
Moreover, there is a strong point which we mean to
indicate, but not now to argue at length, which statesmen,
familiar with the springs of events, well know to have truth
for its foundation. About the close of the war, when the
issue was certain, and a great empire of independent and
powerful sovereignties was taking rank among the nations,
it was deemed of the utmost importance that all disputes
about territory and jurisdiction should be put to rest.
Powerful States were to be conciliated by the favorable
adjustment of their claims. Indemnifications were to be
allowed to others. Little would those statesmen and
patriots have deserved the award we all yield their wisdom
and sagacity, if they had not adopted proper measures to
harmonize conflicting interests, and to consolidate the
Union. How far the national policy we speak of influenced
the various measures and final decision which confirmed to
Pennsylvania the whole extent of her chartered limits, and
granted to Connecticut an indemnification in Ohio, we need
not here demonstrate. Certainly that policy was, in a
national point of view, wise — a benefit to Connecticut — a
blessing to Pennsylvania ; and if, for the common good, it
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. I I
excluded Westmoreland from a participation with other
towns indemnified, is it not right that the common purse
should afford her such remuneration as may be just?
Again: the old Connecticut Congress passed a resolution,
October 10, 1780, in which it was declared, in reference to
the unappropriated lands which may be ceded to the United
States, "that the necessary and reasonable expenses which
any particular State shall have incurred, since the com
mencement of the present war, in subduing any British
posts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within and for
the defence, or in acquiring any part of the territory that
may be ceded or relinquished to the United States, shall be
reimbursed." Although the words of the resolution do not
reach us, we do respectfully suggest that its spirit makes
strongly in favor of the Wyoming claim.
During the revolutionary war , Wyoming stood an extreme
frontier, an outpost, on the borders of the settlement of the
savage enemy. To Sunbury, the nearest inhabited place
down the Susquehanna, it was sixty miles ; through the
Great Swamp it was sixty miles, a pathless wilderness, to
Bethlehem or Easton. The warlike and bloody Mohawks,
Senecas, and others, of the Six Nations, occupied all the
upper branches of the Susquehanna, and were within a few
hours' sail of our settlements, which were exposed to con
stant attacks. Our pathways were ambushed, and midnight
glared with the constant conflagration of our dwellings.
Thus exposed, we stood as a shield to all the settlements
below us. In this situation, every man might justly be
considered as on duty continually. Every man might well
be considered as enlisted for and during the whole war.
There was no peace, no security, at Wyoming. The hus
bandman took his hoe in one hand, and his rifle in the
other, to the cornfield. Several forts were built, and garri
sons steadily maintained. Such was the case with Winter-
moot's fort, Forty fort, and the fort at Wilkesbarre. This
was done by the people, by the militia, by common consent
I 2 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
and common exertion.* Three hundred miles from Con
necticut, it was vain to ask assistance from her, exerting
every nerve as she was for the common defence, and the
protection of her extensive and exposed seaboard. If
States which ceded lands were entitled to be reimbursed
for keeping up forts, we submit whether a people situated
like those of Wyoming may not properly ask for reimburse
ment — since not only themselves, but a wide extent of
country below, slept in comparative security through their
position and exertions.
But Congress early saw and felt for the extremely exposed
situation of Wyoming. On the 23d August, 1/76, resolu
tions were entered into, of which one is in these words :
"That two companies on the continental establishment be
raised in the town of Westmoreland, and stationed in proper
places, foi the defence of the inhabitants of said toivn, and
parts adjacent, till further orders of Congress." The Monday
following, August 26th, "Congress proceeded to the election
of sundry officers, when Robert Durkee and Samuel Ran
som were chosen captains of the two companies ordered to
be raised in the town of Westmoreland ; James Wells and
Perrin Ross, first lieutenants; Heman Swift and Matthias
Hollenback, ensigns of said companies."
* Extract from Westmoreland Records.
"At a town meeting legally warned and held in Westmoreland, in
" Wilkesbarre district, August ye 24th, 1776,
" Col. Butler was chosen Moderator for ye work of ye day.
"Voted — It is the opinion of this meeting that it now becomes
" necessary for ye inhabitants of this Town to erect suitable fort or
" forts, as a defence against our common enemy.
"August 28th, 1776, this meeting is opened and held by adjourn-
"ment.
"Voted — That y.e three Field Officers of ye Regiment in this Town
"be appointed as a committee to view the most convenient places in
"said Town for building forts for ye defence of said Town, and
" determine on so me particular spot or place or places in each district
"for that purpose, and mark out the same.
"Voted — That the above said committee do recommend it to the
"people in each part as shall be set off by them to belong to any fort,
"to proceed forthwith in building said forts, &c., without either fee
" or reward from ye said Town."
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 13
Thus the General Government, the Continental Congress,
took the special defence of Wyoming into their hands.
They were satisfied, it seems, that the militia, however well
organized, were not sufficient for its defence. A regular
force was deemed necessary, and orders were issued for
raising that force, for the special defence of that town and
parts adjacent. By another clause it was provided that the
men should be liable to serve in any other part of the
United States. This provision, notwithstanding they were
raised expressly "for the defence of the inhabitants" &c.,
was perfectly proper; for if the savages on the upper waters
of the Susquehanna should be driven off by a force from
Albany, or elsewhere, so that the source of impending
danger should be removed, there was nothing more proper
than that these companies, being no longer needed for the
defence of the inhabitants, should be marched elsewhere,
at the discretion of Congress. Imperious necessity, how
ever, almost immediately induced Congress, without the
implied contingency of the proximate enemy being removed,
to call for their services in another quarter. On the 25th
October, 1776, the battle of White Plains was fought, and
Washington retreated. November 16, Fort Washington
surrendered to the enemy, who immediately pushed his
victorious troops in pursuit of the American army, and on
the 2d December His Excellency retired through Prince
ton to Trenton, Lord Cornwallis pushing upon his rear.
"The army," says Marshall, "at no time during the retreat,
exceeded four thousand men, and on reaching the Delaware
was reduced to less than three thousand, of whom not quite
one-third were militia of New Jersey." "The commander-
in-chief found himself at the head of this small band of
soldiers, dispirited by their losses and fatigues, retreating,
almost naked and barefooted, in the cold of November and
December, before a numerous, well appointed, and victori
ous army."
On the 1 2th December Congress passed a resolution,
setting forth, that "whereas the movements of the enemy
have now rendered this city (Philadelphia) the seat of war,"
14 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
&c., they resolve to adjourn to meet at Baltimore. The
SAME DAY they adopted the following resolution : " Resolved,
that the two companies raised in the town of Westmoreland
be ordered to join General Washington with all possible
expedition"
Thus, within less than four months from the first order
to raise companies, and probably within less than ninety
days from their enlistment and organization, the extreme
and pressing exigence of the general cause required that
they should be withdrawn from the country they were
raised to defend, to aid Washington in resisting the alarm
ing advances of the enemy.
The consequence which followed it required but little
sagacity to foresee. Stimulated to revenge by the aid sent
from Wyoming to Washington, incited by the consequent
weakness of the settlements to attack them, and urged by
policy to compel the withdrawal from the commander-in-
chief of part of his men, by forcing them home to defend
their own firesides, the enemy were not long in planning
their attack.
The British having obtained possession of Philadelphia,
inevitable necessity did not allow His Excellency to dispense
with the services of the Westmoreland companies ; but the
reiterated rumors of preparation to attack Wyoming again
engaged the attention of Congress. They saw, felt, and
acknowledged, their exposed situation ; but while the heart
was assailed, and the whole force of the country was con
centrated for its protection, little aid but encouraging words
could be afforded to the threatened extremities. In March,
1778, about ninety days before the invasion, Congress
resolved "That one full company of foot be raised in the
town of Westmoreland, on the East Branch of Susquehanna,
for the defence of the said town, and the settlements on the
frontiers and in the neighborhood thereof, against the Indians
and other enemies of these States : the said company to be
enlisted for one year from the time of their enlisting, unless
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 1$
sooner discharged by Congress." That "t/ie company find
their oiun arms, accoutrements, clothes, and blankets:'" and
provision was made that these should be paid for.
Thus a third company was raised in that infant and small
settlement, having to clothe and arm themselves, if they
could, and an exhausted Treasury promised to repay the
charge. This company was in the battle, and almost liter-
erally annihilated.
The number of men which comprised the first two com
panies, when raised in 1776, we are not able to state ; but
in June, 1778, by a resolution of Congress, it appears that
there were then 86 non-commissioned officers and privates.
A number, it is known, were slain in battle, in the Jerseys,
and some died in the service. At the time mentioned, the
two companies were consolidated into one ; Simon Spald-
ing appointed captain, Timothy Pierce and Phineas Pierce,
lieutenants, and they were detached for the defence of the
frontiers, but did not arrive until the settlement was cut off
Captain Ransom and Captain Durkee, Lieutenants Ross
and Wells, of the original companies, at home on furlough,
were in the battle, and were all slain.
On the 1st of July, 1778, Colonel John Butler, of the
British army, with 400 men, regulars and tories, and with
500 Indian warriors, entered the valley of Wyoming.
Rumors of the meditated irruption had preceded them, and
pressing solicitations for relief had been sent to headquarters.
A number of the officers of the two companies had returned
on furlough. The militia were mustered. Old men and
boys took their muskets. Retirement or flight was impos
sible. There seemed no security but in victory. Unequal
as was the conflict, and hopeless in the eye of prudence;
the young athletic men fit to bear ams, and raised for their
special defence, being absent with the main army ; yet the
inhabitants, looking to their dependent wives and little ones,
took counsel of their courage, and resolved to give the
enemy battle. On the 3d of July, about 400 men, under
the command of Colonel Zebulon Butler, marched out to
meet the British and their savage allies ; being more than
1 6 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
double their numbers. On the right wing the conflict was
sharply contested for some time, and the enemy gave way.
On the left, outflanked by the savages, the men fought and
fell rapidly, till an order was given to fall back and present
a longer front to the enemy ; a manoevre which could not
be executed under the destructive fire of the Indian rifles.
Confusion ensued, a disastrous retreat followed, and a most
cruel massacre consummated the bloody tragedy. We
cannot dwell on the battle and the subsequent horrors. It
would be useless if we could. Brother fell by the side of
brother ; fathers and sons perished in the same field. More
than half our little army were slain ; many of the rest were
wounded ; and the whole settlement — very aged men and
helpless children, widows and orphans, were now exposed,
without protection, to the tomahawk and scalping-knife. In
utter confusion and distress they all fled — some in boats
down the river, but most on foot through the wilderness.
Your imaginations must conceive, for words cannot paint,
the unequalled misery of their situation. In the simplicity
of truth we will state two instances — those of the chairman
and secretary of this meeting.
Perrin and Jeremiah Ross, brothers of the chairman,
were in the battle, and both fell. Mr. Ross, then a lad, his
father being dead, was the only male of the family remain
ing. His mother, six sisters, the widow of his brother Perrin
and her five orphan children, fled — such was the terror and
confusion — not together, but in three separate parties ; two
down the river to Harrisburg, and thence to Orange county,
New York ; two to Nescopeck, and thence to Fort Allen ;
the rest by a more eastern route.
The father of Mr. Dana had then recently returned from
Hartford, where he had been a member of the Assembly of
Connecticut, from the town of Westmoreland. He was in
the battle, and Mr. Whiting, a young man who had a few
months before married his daughter, was also in the battle.
Both were slain. Anderson Dana, our Secretary, then a
lad of thirteen, his widowed mother and widowed sister
(the latter in delicate health) with thirteen others, of whom
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. I/
he was the eldest male — having one pack-horse to carry
the few things they could hastily gather, set out through
the wilderness on foot to join their friends three hundred
miles distant, in Ashford, Connecticut, from whence they
originally came. Death and desolation were behind, them;
before them, hunger, and sorrow, and despair. They were
twenty days on their journey, living chiefly on charity.
Several women of different parties of fugitives, gave birth
to children on their way, who were indeed
" Children of misery, baptized in tears."
In the Valley,- the demon of destruction completed his
work. Scarcely an inhabitant remained. Every house was
rifled and burnt. The sweep was universal; everything
was destroyed. The cattle driven away, and the harvests
laid waste. War and woe never looked upon a scene of such
utter sorrow and desolation !
Gentlemen, is it not plain that these disasters and suffer
ings befell the inhabitants from their exertions in the cause
of their country? Is it not manifest that the withdrawing
of the two companies raised for the defence of trie people
occasioned the attack, massacre, and ruin that followed?
And is it not right, just, now, when the public Treasury is
full, and all the other equitable revolutionary claims have
been recognized by Congress, that something should be
granted to the old Wyoming sufferers and their heirs? Why
should all receive bounty or justice, and we, tenfold suf
ferers, obtain nothing? In honor to the dead, as well as
justice to the living, we ask it at your hands. Noble Virginia
granted Colonel George Rogers Clarke and his regiment,
who marched with him to Kaskaskias and St. Vincent, one
hundred and fifty thousand acres of land on the Ohio.
Should not Wyoming receive as much? The portion of
New London must have exceeded one hundred and fifty
thousand. Ought not Wyoming to receive as much?
Having no other resting place, the survivors were obliged
to return, desolate and melancholy as were their homes.
The battle field was still strewed with the unburied slain;
1 8 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
and their remains, as soon as they could be approached in
that sultry season, were gathered and interred with affec
tionate and pious care.
* After their return, the savages kept war parties around
the settlements, and many were murdered. Jonathan Slocum
and his Wife's father, Isaac Tripp, Esq., who had been a
representative to the Connecticut Assembly, from West
moreland, were butchered and scalped together, near the
Wilkesbarre fort; and shortly before, another party of
savages murdered two children near the door of Mr.
Slocum, and took captive Frances, their daughter, aged
then about five years. After the war, diligent search through
all the Indian country, to Detroit, was made by her broth
ers, for their lost sister, but in vain. After all hope was
extinguished, recently, within the present year, the sister,
now nearly seventy years of age, has been found. Not
able to speak a word of our language, a long life of habit
has identified her with the Indians ; and though there is a
melancholy pleasure in the recognition, and the certainty
of her fate, yet it is the joy of grief, for the grave could
scarcely have more effectually separated her from her friends.
Such were among the deep woes and sorrows of Wyoming !
There was no peace till General Sullivan, aided by Generals
Clinton, Poor, Maxwell, Hand, Colonel Proctor, with his
artillery, and others, invaded the Indian country in 1779,
and drove the savages to Niagara.
By a resolution of Congress of March 14, 1777, it was
ordered "That General Washington be informed that no
provision has been made by Congress for the support of
widows whose husbands have been slain in battle."
At a later day, when the distresses of war were more
fully realized, better thoughts prevailed, and, August 16,
1 779, the following just and beautiful resolution was adopted
by an almost unanimous vote: "That it be, and hereby is,
recommended to the several States to make such provision
*This and the following five paragraphs with the foot note are
omitted in Miner's History, Appendix, pp. 75-80.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 19
for the widows of such of their officers, and such of the
soldiers enlisted for the war, as have died, or may die, in
the service, as shall secure to them the sweets of that liberty
for the attainment of which the husbands have so nobly
laid down their lives."
By a resolution of August 24, 1780, the resolution of
May, 1778, granting half pay to those officers who con
tinued to the end of the war, was extended for seven years
after such officer's death, to his widow or orphan children.
Though the letter of the resolutions may not reach us so
as to found thereon a legal claim, we do respectfully sub
mit to your honorable Houses, that their equity and spirit
do extend to the widows and orphans of those who, at
Wyoming, nobly laid down their lives to obtain the sweets
of liberty and independence to their country. For, in the
view of patriotism and justice, what difference can it make,
in respect to a claim for assistance to the widow and orphan
left destitute by the death of their husband or' father,
whether they were engaged to serve for a longer or shorter
time? The term of either ceased with death, and left each
in equal sorrow and destitution.
Several widows applied to the commander of the Indian
expedition in 1779, on his passage through Wyoming, for
bread. They received it only on condition that they would
^vo^'k for the public in return — so ill were the regulations of
those disastrous times.*
The blood and tears shed at Wyoming were not shed in
vain. Perhaps few incidents during the war produced
* What a noble contrast do the proceedings of Wyoming present.
We copy from the record.
"At a town meeting legally warned and held at Westmoreland,
' December ye 9th, 1777: John Jenkins, Esq., was chosen Moderator
' for ye work of ye day ; Ezekiel Pierce was chosen town clerk for
'the year ensuing, December 3oth, 1777. This meeting is opened
' and held by adjournment.
"Voted — By this Town, that ye Committee of Inspectors be em-
' powered to supply the SoGERS' wives and ROGERS' widows, and their
'families, with the necessaries of life"
2O Till-: WVOMINC MASSACRE.
stronger sensations of horror and pity, throughout Europe,
than the Wyoming massacre. Perhaps few circumstances
had so powerful a tendency to discredit, in public estima
tion, the arms and efforts of the enemy, or had a stronger
influence in arousing the people of the whole civilized
world in behalf of the American cause.
After the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and the war
might be regarded as ended, Congress issued a proclama
tion for a general thanksgiving, calling on all classes to
acknowledge the goodness of Almighty God, in affording
aid to our arms — "In confounding the councils of our ene
mies, and suffering them to pursue such measures as have
contributed to frustrate their own desires and expectations ;
above all, in making their extreme cruelty to the inhabitants
of these States, when in their power, and their savage
devastation of property, the very means of cementing our
Union, and adding vigor to every effort in opposition to
them."
Thus, honorable Representatives of the States and People,
have we stated our case, and respectfully pray that Con
gress would appropriate a tract of land equal to that
granted by the State of Virginia to Colonel George Rogers
Clarke's regiment ; or in proportion to that granted by
Connecticut to New London and her other towns, to be
divided by commissioners to be appointed by the President
of the United States — to the old Wyoming sufferers, their
widows, heirs, and legal representatives.
Signed by order and in behalf of the meeting.
WILLIAM ROSS, Chairman.
ANDERSON DANA, Secretary.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 21
25'rn CONGRESS, DOC. NO. 358. Ho. OF REPS.
2d Session.
WYOMING SUFFERERS.
Resolution of the Legislature of the State of Pennsyl
vania, in favor of granting relief to the Wyoming Sufferers
for tlicir losses during tJic Revolutionary War.
MAY 2, 1838.
Referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.
Resolution relative to the claim of the old Wyoming Sufferers.
Whereas, a memorial has been presented to the Congress
of trie United States, in behalf of the old Wyoming suf
ferers, their widows, heirs and legal representatives, praying
that Congress would grant them a tract of land, in satisfac
tion of their claims for losses and sufferings sustained at
the hands of the common and savage enemy ; and whereas,
said losses and sufferings were incurred under circumstances
peculiar to the Wyoming settlement, inasmuch as the two
companies raised at Wyoming, in pursuance of the resolu
tion of Congress of the 23d of August, 1776, for the defence
of the inhabitants of said town and parts adjacent, till
further orders from Congress, were, by another resolution
of the 1 2th December following, ordered to join General
Washington with all possible expedition ; thus, at the same
time exciting the anger of the enemy by aid furnished the
continental army, and depriving the settlement of its means
of defence ; and whereas, said claim is well founded injustice
and equity, and no compensation ever has been in any way
made to those sufferers ; and as there is no source, other
than the Congress of the United States, to which the
claimants can now look with any hope of remuneration :
Therefore,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the Common wealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met,
That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Rep
resentatives be requested, by their influence and their votes,
to support said claim, and to procure, if possible, the pass
age of such a law as will adequately compensate the Wyo
ming sufferers for their losses during the revolutionary war.
Resolved, That the Governor be requested to forward a
copy of the above preamble and resolution to each of our
Senators and Representatives in Congress.
LEWIS DEWART,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
CHARLES B. PEN ROSE,
Speaker of tJic Senate.
Approved the i6th day of April, 1838.
JOSEPH RITNER.
EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, \
Harrisburg, April 24, 1838. )
SIR : In conformity with the request of the Legislature
of this State, I enclose to you the resolution lately adopted
"relative to the claim" of the old Wyoming sufferers."
I am, sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
JOSEPH RITNER.
HON. DAVID PETRIKIN,
Washington, D. C.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 23
25TH CONGRESS, [REP. No. 863.] Ho. OF REPS.
2d Session.
SAMUEL TUBES AND OTHERS.
MAY 1 1, 1838.
Laid on the table.
MR. AUGUSTINE H. SHEPPARD, from the Committee on
Revolutionary Claims, made the following
REPORT:
The Committee on Revolutionary Claims, to which was re
ferred the petition of Samuel Tubbs and others, report :
That the petitioners represent themselves as being the
sufferers and the descendants of those who suffered in the
massacre at Wyoming, in the revolutionary war. No evi
dence whatever is offered to the committee tending to show
that the petitioners do really sustain the character they
have assumed; they are, therefore, relieved from looking
to any other objection that might arise in passing favorably
upon this description of claims.
Resolved, That the committee be discharged from any
further consideration of this petition.
24 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
25TH CONGRESS, [REP. No. 1032.] Ho. OF REPS.
2fi Session.
WYOMING CLAIMS.
JULY 2, 1838.
Read, and laid upon the table.
Mr. UNDERWOOD, from the the Committee on Revolutionary
Claims, made the following
REPORT :
The Committee on Revolutionary Claims, to which were re
ferred sundry petitions praying Congress to make compen
sation to the survivors and to the descendants of those who
were slain in the massacre of Wyoming for losses sus
tained, report:
That the claim of the petitioners is not based upon any
resolution or act of Congress of the Revolution, upon which
any allowance or compensation can be made the sufferers
or their descendants on the principle of discharging a con
tract. The application, therefore, rests upon the propriety
of granting a gratuity under the peculiar circumstances of
the case. The hardships and privations endured by the
settlers in the Wyoming valley, and the devastations and
murders perpetrated by their savage enemy, are well au
thenticated by history, and forcibly and feelingly presented
in the document advocating the claims of the petitioners.
It is therein shown that, in all probability, Connecticut
would have made a suitable provision in behalf of the
sufferers and their descendants, had that State retained
jurisdiction over the country. The fact that the people of
Wyoming were excluded, in consequence of the jurisdiction
and claim of Pennsylvania, from the benefits of the legisla
tion of Connecticut, which relieved other portions of her
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 25
citizens who suffered during the Revolution, upon principles
equally applicable to the Wyoming settlers, is not sufficient
to give them a valid claim against the United States. We
must test the validity of the claim independent of that cir
cumstance. When that is done, it presents the single
question whether the Government of the United States
ought, at this day, to make provision for compensating the
losses sustained by the inroads, devastations, and murders
of a savage enemy during the Revolution. If it be proper
to make such provision, the committee cannot receive any
sufficient reason for discriminating in favor of the Wyoming
sufferers, so as to grant indemnity and relief to them, and
withhold it from others. Why may not the families whose
husbands and fathers were defeated and slain in the battle
of the Bluelicks, claim compensation? They marched to
meet a savage enemy, to repel an invasion, to defend their
fire-sides, and were slain. Why may not all those whose
houses were burnt by savages, and whose children, in the
absence of their fathers, were often murdered, or carried off
into captivity, during the Indian wars which prevailed at
the period of the early settlements in Kentucky and Ten
nessee, claim compensation, if the Government allows it in
behalf of the Wyoming petitions? The committee perceive
no sufficient reason to discriminate, and are of opinion that
all or none should be provided for. Ought any to be pro
vided for? We think not. The principle upon which
Governments are charged for damage done by a public
enemy, requires that the loss should be the consequence of
the action of the Government. If (for illustration) the Gov
ernment occupies the houses of the citizen for military
purposes, and thereby induces the enemy to destroy them
in order to dislodge or defeat an army, the suffering citizen
may justly claim compensation. But where the enemy
wantonly burns a city, or town, or pillages a farm, or mur
ders the head of a family, there is no just foundation to
claim compensation. If the Government should acknowl
edge its responsibility in such cases, the consequences might
be destructive to the patriotism of the country. • The rule
would tend to influence the citizen to abandon his property
26 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
instead of defending it, and set up a claim against the Gov
ernment for its loss, instead of protecting it by manly defence.
The prayer of the petitioners for compensation on account
of the burning of Charlestown, Massachusetts, during the
Revolution, was rejected by the Committee on Revolution
ary Claims of the 24th Congress, and we refer to the report
in that case for principles applicable to this.
The committee are of opinion that the prayer of the
petitioners ought not to be granted.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 2/
25TH CONGRESS, DOC. NO. 203. Ho. OF REPS.
jd Session.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR— WYOMING SUFFERERS.
PETITION
OF
THE SUFFERERS OF WYOMING, PENNSYLVANIA,
By depredations committed by the Indians in the revolutionary
war.
FEBRUARY 18, 1839.
Laid ou the table, and ordered to be printed.
To Congress, on behalf of the Wyoming sufferers :
We make our petition short, that every one of your honors
may read it in two minutes.
A memorial was presented at last session, setting forth
our case at length, referred to the Committee on Revolu
tionary Claims, and an unfavorable report was made July
2d — too near the close of the session to be acted on.
The ground taken in that report is contained in two short
sentences :
"That the claim is not based upon any resolution or act
of the Congress of the Revolution, upon which any allow
ance or compensation can be made the sufferers, or their
descendants, on the principle of discharging a contract."
Again : "The principle upon which Governments are
charged for damages done by a public enemy requires that
the loss should be in consequence of the action of the
Government."
May it please your honors, we were very unfortunate in
not expressing ourselves more clearly. On those very
principles rests one of the strongest grounds of our claim.
We charge distinctly that the Continental Congress made
a contract with us, and violated it, which occasioned our
ruin. We aver that it was in consequence of the action of
the Government our losses were sustained.
28 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
The resolution of August 23, 1776, reads thus: "Re
solved, that two companies on the continental establishment
be raised in the town of Westmoreland, and stationed in
proper places, for the defence of the inhabitants of said
town and parts adjacent, till further orders of Congress."
In violation of this solemn pledge, the men were not
stationed here. They were forthwith, immediately on being
raised, drawn away, marched below the mountains more
than one hundred miles, kept away, the settlments left
wholly defenceless ; whereupon the enemy came down and
destroyed it. We therefore respectfully renew our prayer
for such remuneration as shall be just and equitable.
We refer to our memorial and documents of last session.
It is our intention to argue the matter in a separate paper,
and send it to your honors in a few days.
Signed, on behalf of the Wyoming sufferers,
WILLIAM ROSS, Chairman.
ANDERSON DANA, Secretary.
THE ARGUMENT.
To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives,
constituting the Congress of the United States :
The committee, on behalf of the Wyoming sufferers, have
already forwarded a new petition, signed by General William
Ross, chairman of the meeting, and Anderson Dana, Esq.,
secretary (the former of whom lost two brothers, slain in the
battle of July 3, 1 778, and the latter his father and a brother-
in-law,) asking a recognition of our claims. Those gentle
men, from their own personal character, from the respect
able meeting they represent, and from the deep sufferings
of their families, are entitled to be heard ; and the request
they urge, to be fairly and impartially considered.
In support of the prayer of that petition, the committee
beg leave to submit the following argument, brief and strong
as we can make it, controverting the opinion of Judge
Underwood, expressed in his report from the Committee of
Revolutionary Claims, made just before the close of your
last session.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 2Q
The gist of that report is contained in the two following
propositions, namely:
1st. "That the claim of the petitioners is not based
upon any resolution or act of the Congress of the Revolu
tion, upon which any allowance or compensation can be
made the sufferers or their descendants, on the principle of
discharging a contract."
2d. "The principle upon which Governments are charged
for damages done by a public enemy requires that the loss
should be the consequence of the action of the Govern
ment."
Our purpose is to show, and we feel confident that we
shall be able to satisfy every intelligent and impartial
mind —
ist. That the claim of the petitioners is based on a reso
lution of the Congress of the Revolution, on which com
pensation can and ought to be made the sufferers, on the
principle of discharging a contract.
2d. That the loss sustained was in consequence of the
action of the Government.
It should be borne in mind that the Continental Con
gress legislated by resolution. Their most solemn contracts
with the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war were
made by resolution alone. No formal instrument ; no signed,
sealed, and delivered paper or parchment, was used or
deemed necessary. Congress, being the supreme power
in the State, by resolution prescribed conditions according
to its own wise pleasure, which, when accepted, were re
garded as of binding force. Thus, when eighty-eight
battalions were required to be raised to serve during the
war, September 16, 1776, Congress resolved:
"That twenty dollars be given as a bounty to each non
commissioned officer and private soldier who shall enlist
and serve during the present war, unless sooner discharged
by Congress."
"That Congress make provision for granting lands, in the
following proportions, to the officers and soldiers, &c. : To
a colonel, 500 acres; to a lieutenant colonel, 450 acres;"
and so on.
3<3 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Permit us to ask if there is a doubt, or if there ever was
a doubt, whether this resolution was not a binding compact
of the most imperative, legal, and equitable obligation,
between the Government on one part, and the officers and
soldiers who, under it, engaged to serve in the war, on the
other part.
The question then presents itself, what are the terms of
the resolution on which we rely; what its provisions; what
is its fair and evident meaning, according to the most accept
able rules of construction ?
The resolution of the Continental Congress, to which we
refer, is in these words :
"Resolved, That two companies on the continental estab
lishment be raised in the town of Westmoreland, and
stationed in proper places for the defence of the inhabitants
of said town and parts adjacent, till further orders of Con
gress." (See Journal, Aug. 23, 1776.)
By another clause it was provided that the men should
be liable to serve in any part of the United States.
It will strike the intelligent reader that there is something
peculiar in this resolve. Those conversant with the jour
nals will see that the proposition by Congress to raise troops
in a particular town is quite unusual, if not wholly without
precedent or example. The usual course was to order the
number of battalions which each State should raise ; but to
designate a particular town, and direct what companies
should be therein raised, is, on the face of it, extraordinary.
It prompts the instant inquiry, how is this? Why this devia
tion from the common course? But two companies are to
be raised in Westmoreland; two full companies; what!
in one town? was such a thing ever heard of before? Cer
tainly there must have been good reasons that moved
Congress to this unusual proceeding. That august body
acted with wisdom and deliberation. They did not move
without good and sufficient cause. Let us, then, examine
the whole matter with care, explore the reasons which occa
sioned this peculiar step, and endeavor to ascertain what
were their motives, their intentions, and their acts.
The situation of the town of Westmoreland, considered,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 3 I
first, as it respected the State of which it was a part ; sec
ondly, its situation in respect to other settlements ; and,
thirdly, in regard to the enemy, will throw light upon this
subject, which otherwise seems so dark and unintelligible
to the superficial reader.
First. Westmoreland was a town of Connecticut, though \x
it lay far west, beyond the State of New York. Connecticut * \
claimed, by its charter, from her eastern limits, about a
degree of latitude west to the ocean, excepting such terri
tory as was previously granted or settled. Honestly believ
ing in the justice of her claims (whether mistaken or correct
does not appertain to this argument,) she pushed out beyond
the Delaware her settlements, which were concentrated at
Wyoming. Here she established the town of Westmore
land, which was attached to Litchfield county, and two
representatives were here chosen to the Assembly, sitting
at Hartford or New Haven. The great distance from the
parent State would have prevented aid being received from
thence in case of attack, if no other hinderance intervened;
but, in those early times, the highways were exceedingly
rough; and from the Delaware to the Susquehanna was a
wilderness barely not impassable. Moreover, with her
exposed frontier for one hundred miles along the seaboard,
from Stonington to Stamford, the latter within less than
fifty miles of the headquarters of the British, it will be at
once seen that she could not spare men to defend this
remote settlement. It was therefore physically and morally
impossible for Connecticut to afford us protection.
We come, then to the second consideration, namely, the
situation of Westmoreland in respect to other inhabitants.
The upper settlements of Pennsylvania, those nearest to
Wyoming, were Easton and Bethlehem, about sixty miles
distant — and the Great Swamp, including the Shades of
Death, from its gloomy and inhospitable character, with
the range of the Blue mountains, all intervening. A bridle
path existed through this dreary way ; but extreme neces
sity only could oblige a person to travel it. Down the
Susquehanna, about sixty miles, to Sunbury, at the conflu
ence of the west and east branches, there was a small number
32 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
of persons and a fort named "Augusta;" but the exposed
situation of Sunbury, and the limited number of inhabitants,
would have rendered aid from that quarter hopeless. The
fact should also be distinctly impressed on the mind, that
Easton, Bethlehem, and Sunbury, with the Government of
Pennsylvania, regarded the Wyoming people with a jealous
eye, as intruders and rival claimants of a desirable territory.
In case of attack, aid from those points, it will be seen, was
hardly to be expected.
Then comes the third consideration. What was the situ
ation of Westmoreland in regard to the enemy? Was there
danger? What was the character, power, and nearness, of
that enemy? This is a point of the utmost consequence to
the right understanding of this matter.
In answer, we state the well-known fact that the savages
inhabited all the upper branches of the Susquehanna, and
their settlements extended through the whole lake and Gen-
esee country. Not a single wandering tribe, half broken by
contact with white men, and their strength withered by
indulgence in spirituous liquors — not the emasculated Dela
ware, conquered by a superior tribe, and obliged to wear
the garb and name of women — but it was the most power
ful and dreadful confederacy of Indians the white man had
ever encountered on this continent. Their victorious arms
reached to the Catawbas of Carolina, and dealt out bolts of
vengeance upon the Mohicans of New England. The Six
Nations, or the confederate tribes, were known in our history
as the most powerful and the most warlike of the whole race
of red men. Dr. Golden, in view of their strength, extended
empire, and boundless ambition, gave them the name of the
Roman Indians. They gave themselves the lofty name of
" Ongivehonuc," signifying "men surpassing all others, supe
rior to the rest of mankind ;" and there was not a man,
woman, or child, within a circle of a thousand miles, who,
seventy years ago, did not tremble and turn pale at
the name. A MOHAWK! a MOHAWK! was a cry of heart-
withering terror; and when, in Queen Anne's reign, there
arose a band of ruthless and bloody ruffians, in London,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 33
who seized and wantonly maimed their victims, to designate
them as supremely savage, they were called MOHAWKS.*
This confederacy of warlike nations inhabited the upper
section of the river ; they were in force at Aquago, at Una-
dilla, at Tioga, and at Newtown. From Tioga, where they
would rendezvous, at a moderate rise of water, boats can
descend to Wyoming in twenty-four hours. The navigation
is smooth and excellent, so much so that, by moonlight, our
raftmen often run, and with safety. So that a descending
water communication, rendering an attack sudden and easy,
placed Westmoreland in a more exposed situation than any
other portion of the American frontier. The hiss and rattle
could be heard from the doorsill! The howling from the
den was within ear-shot of the fold! A numerous, warlike,
and cruel enemy was within striking distance! Thus near
was the danger. Thus exposed was Wyoming !
These were the peculiar circumstances which rendered
Westmoreland an object of special attention on the part of
the Continental Congress. Nor was this all. Another con
sideration of weight bears directly on this point The
savage generally attacks the nearest or outer settlement
both as most exposed, and to prevent being intercepted and
cut off, should he venture deeper within the inhabited
country. If the Wyoming people should abandon their
possessions, then, of course, an extended line along the Blue
mountains, sixty miles lower down, would be exposed.
Slaughter, havoc, and fire would rage from the Water-gap
to Fort Augusta. Not only would the immediate sufferings
of the people exist to be deprecated, but Easton, Bethlehem,
and perhaps Reading, being constantly harassed, the re
sources of men and provisions for Washington's army on
* Moreover, if any thing could add to the accumulated dread and
horror of these nations, was the fact that they were cannibals,
devourers of human flesh. "The Five Nations formerly," says the
Rev. C. Pyrlaeus, as quoted by Heckewelder, "did eat human flesh."
"Eto niacht ochquari," said they, in devouring the whole body of a
French soldier ; which, being interpreted, is "human flesh tastes like
bear meat! "
(vSee transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the
American Philanthropist Society, published in Philadelphia, 1819,
page 37.)
34 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
the maritime frontier would be most injuriously affected.
Bringing the war, like two lines of fire, so near each other,
the savages on the north and the British on the south, must
occasion infinite distress, if not danger to the cause. Hence
it will be seen that there were considerations of the most
weighty character to induce Congress specially to interpose
in respact to Wyoming.
We use the words Wyoming or Westmoreland with the
same meaning ; the first being the popular and well-known
name, the second the technical designation, and that used
by the resolution. As they must frequently occur, the
irksomeness of too frequent repetition is thereby in some
measure avoided.
We have drawn out those particulars relating to the
matter somewhat at length, because we know that the
present Congress and the country at large have been under
the impression that this stood, like other frontier settlements,
without anything peculiar in its case, except that of suffering
more deeply. It was not so. The aspect of the case above
presented will aid, we trust, to correct the error, and place
the facts in their proper point of view. The Continental
Congress saw the subject in its just light, interposed with
its wisdom and authority, took Wyoming under its particu
lar protection, and provided, "That two companies on the
continental establishment be raised in the town of West
moreland, and STATIONED IN PROPER PLACES, FOR THE DE
FENCE OF THE INHABITANTS OF SAID TOWN and parts adjacent,
until further order of Congress." Thus, on the 23d of
August, 1776, was it resolved.
The question arises : What is the true interpretation of
this resolution? Was it in the nature of a contract entered
into between the Government and the people of Westmore
land? What are the terms of the agreement? Were they
complied with by the people? Were they fulfilled by the
Government, or were they violated by the Government?
And were the losses that occurred the consequences of that
violation, which, in the language of Judge Underwood, give
a claim on the principle of "discharging a contract?" Or
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 35
was the loss sustained " in consequence of the action of the
Government?"
We beg leave to lay down the following, as among the
just rules of construction applicable to the case. It would
seem like pedantry, were we to quote authorities for them,
derived from Grotius to Vattel, and from Vattel to Black-
stone. The general rules are founded in common sense,
are confirmed by the wisdom and experience of ages, and
are, we apprehend, of equally just application, whether quot
ed by those authors as having reference to the interpreta
tion of treaties, compacts, statutes, deeds, or resolutions :
Rules of Construction.
1. That, to determine the meaning of a statute, we must
look to the circumstances existing at the time it was made,
and the evils meant to be remedied.
2. It shall not be presumed, in a solemn contract, that
any words were used without due consideration and a
definite meaning.
3. That to every word or sentence shall be ascribed a
meaning, if it be possible.
4. That doubtful words be taken most strongly against
the grantor or maker of the 'instrument.
5. That where a benefit is stipulated and an equivalent
required, you may not demand the equivalent without fully
meting out or according the benefit stipulated.
6. That faith is not less wounded by a refusal to admit a
right interpretation, than by an open infraction.
7. That the interpretation of every act ought to be made
such as the parties concerned must naturally have under
stood them.
8. Every interpretation that leads to an absurdity ought
to be rejected.
If these rules be correct, let them have their just appli
cation to the resolution, and we presume that not a doubt
could longer exist of the justice of the Wyoming claim.
"That two companies be raised — [this is clear, and needs
no interpretation; each company consisted of 84 men] —
on the continental establishment — [this also is precise, and
requires no explanation] — in the town of Westmoreland —
36 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
[the place where is distinctly set forth] — AND STATIONED."
One would think this word sufficiently common and plain.
It would be scarcely respectful to refer intelligent minds to
a dictionary for its meaning. Every school-boy knows that
to be stationed means to be fixed at a particular point — not
to be drawn away or marched from place to place. But
the provision goes further — the men are to be stationed, not
till they were wanted elsewhere, not till Congress shall think
proper to call them away, but they are "to be stationed in
proper places for the defence of the inhabitants." There is
a particular purpose in view in raising these two companies ;
there is an object in calling on a single town for so large a
body of men as two companies ; it is for their own protec
tion — they "shall be stationed in proper places for the de
fence of the inhabitants." From whom? Where was the
source of danger? Not from Lords Howe or Cornwallis.
From the maritime frontier there was nothing to apprehend.
The danger was from the Mohawks — from the confederate
savage nations on the upper branches of the river.
The question turns on this — whether these words have
any meaning. Can a doubt exist? Are not the expressions
plain? Are not the reasons 'of the thing abundant and
clear?
But does the subsequent clause, "until otherwise ordered
by Congress," annihilate and make void what goes before?
That would be contrary to every rule of interpretation
brought forward or left behind, in the books or out of the
books. It would be a violation of common sense — an
absurdity on the face of it.
Can both positions be reconciled — that the men should
be stationed here, and yet that Congress at its discretion
might call them away? Certainly, common sense and com
mon honesty would find not the slightest difficulty. Judges,
the Legislature, and the Executive, are all invested with
discretionary power. Are they therefore despotic and
irresponsible ? God forbid ! Their discretion must be ex
ercised in reference to the laws of the land, the principles
of equity, and the rights of the citizen. The abuse of
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 37
discretionary power is not less odious than the violation of
positive law.
A simple and just paraphrase of this resolution will show
more clearly its meaning and proper construction :
"People of Westmoreland," says Congress, "we see your
peculiar and exposed situation. Far removed from Con
necticut, your proper State cannot protect you. On the
borders of the confederate savage nations, your danger is
imminent. For the interests of the whole country below,
it is desirable that your settlement be kept up. We have
not troops to spare to garrison your forts, but we will do
all in our power to protect you. Raise two companies on
the continental establishment and we pledge ourselves that
they shall be armed, disciplined, and be stationed among
you in proper places for your defence, so long as the danger
shall exist; but if we can make peace with the Indians, or
drive them off from their settlements, beyond reach, so that
your families will be secure, then we claim the right to
march the men wherever the public service may require."
Agreed, say the inhabitants ; and the men are raised.
This, in our view, is plain common sense. We blush to
be obliged to argue a matter so clear.
And yet, disregarding this solemn pledge, under the
claim that Congress might march the men away at their
discretion, the companies cannot be said to have been
stationed an hour at Wyoming, but were drawn instantly
away. Early in September the resolution to raise them
was received at Wyoming ; early in December, the moment
the men could be enlisted, Congress ordered that they join
General Washington.
Is this giving to every word or sentence a meaning, if it
be possible?
Does not such interpretation involve an absurdity?
Is it not manifestly contrary to the understanding of the
parties at the time?
Can any one doubt but the men enlisted under the full
impression that their homes, their wives, and their little
ones, were to be guarded by their enrollment, and being
armed against a hostile invasion of the savages?
38 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Did Congress use these words foolishly and without
meaning? Such a question is an insult?
Did Congress use them deceptively, and thus fraudulently
lure all the able-bodied men of the settlement to enlist,
meaning to cheat them, and march them a hundred miles
below the mountains, leaving their families exposed to
the savage, without power and without hope? Blistered
be the tongue that should utter such venomous slander
against that venerable and virtuous assemblage !
We are told in the old books of a Roman general who
agreed with Antiochus to restore half his vessels ; but he
caused the vessels to be sawed in two. Another case of
fraudulent interpretation is given : Tamerlane, after having
engaged the city of Sabasta to capitulate, under the promise
that no blood should be spilt, caused all the soldiers of the
garrison to be buried alive.
Here Congress promises that the men shall be retained
for the defence of the inhabitants; and, under reserved
power, impliedly not to be used while the danger continued,
forthwith drew them all away 150 miles, and the enemy
came down and desolated the whole settlement. If this
was intended, wherein was the act less base and treacherous
than that of Tamerlane or the Roman general? Both "kept
the promise to the ear, but broke it to the sense."
Congress did not so intend. The agreement was made
in good faith. It was honestly intended that the companies
should be stationed here so long as the danger continued
to exist. But the exigencies of the country below — the
state of Washington's army — their defeat at the White
Plains in October — the surrender of Fort Washington in
November — the march of Lord Cornwallis from New York,
with a large, well armed, and well appointed army, pressing
in the rear of his Excellency as he retreated with his dis-
spirited troops through the Jerseys — the reduction of our
army to 3,000 men — and, finally, the determination of
Congress to remove from Philadelphia to Baltimore — all go
to show that there existed an extreme distress, an imperi
ous necessity, superior to ail law, superior to all contract.
Thus pressed, on the day Congress resolved to adjourn to
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 39
Baltimore they ordered that the two companies raised in
Westmoreland "join General Washington with all possible
expedition."
The men marched away, and were for the first winter
kept as a distinct corps, called the independent companies,
and stationed on the line between the two armies, being
attached to no regiment or brigade ; manifestly kept thus
separate that they might be returned to Wyoming. But
the necessity that drew the men away continued — the try
ing campaign of 1777 came on — the companies were in the
battles of Millstone, Brandywine, Germantown, Mud Fort,
and others, and could not be spared.
But their absence, they being the chief effective force of
the town, left Westmoreland unprotected — invited the sav
ages to an easy prey — stimulated by their patriotic service
in the cause of liberty, to thirst for vengeance. They came
down and swept the valley with "the fire shower of ruin."
If the two companies, armed and disciplined, had re
mained stationed at home, for the defence of the inhabi
tants, such could not have been the result. The attempt
would not, in all human probability, have been made ; and,
if made, would in all probability have been repelled ; and
the conclusion, to our minds, follows, with the clearness of
light and force of demonstration, that the losses arose from
the act of the Government — that the Government faith was
pledged and broken — from which the disasters occurred ;
that a contract was entered into and violated, which occa
sioned the desolation and loss of property; and that, on
every principle of fairness and justice, the Government
ought to make a just remuneration to the people.
BENJ. A. BIDLACK, "i
WM. S. ROSS -
HEZEKIAH PARSONS, f Com™ttee-
CHARLES MINER. j
JANUARY 21, 1839.
References to the documents and observations.
The committee of correspondence on the part of the
Wyoming sufferers respectfully ask leave to submit to the
4O THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Committee on Revolutionary Claims, with the documents
prepared, a few remarks, with brief references to the evi
dence in support of our memorial.
In respect to those general facts which are matter of
public history, no particular observations are deemed nec
essary.
For the resolutions of Congress ordering two companies
to be raised at Westmoreland ("for defence of said town and
parts adjacent,") refer to Way & Gideon's editions of the
Journals, vol. i, p. 453, August 26, 1776. For the order
to join General Washington, same vol. p. 577, December 12,
1776. For the universal turn out, on the descent of the
enemy, rendered necessary and occasioned by the absence
of the two companies, and for the slaughter which ensued
in families, see the statement, No. i, of Mrs. Bidlack; 2,
Mrs. Carey; 3, Colonel E. Inman. That old men, grand
fathers, and boys of tender age, were obliged to go to battle,
see No. 4, statement of S. Abbott ; which also shows
attempts made to save grain, and the fatal consequences,
and also the total loss of everything. Mrs. Jenkins's state
ment No. 5, shows that the depredations of the enemy
began a few months after the men were marched away—
the horrid cruelties practised — the labor our people had to
undergo, even to making, at times, their own powder — the
continued inroads of the savages up to 1780, as in the case
of Roswell Franklin's family.
Mrs. Myers, No. 6, shows the earnest endeavors of Col
onel Dennison to restrain the enemy from plundering; the
general conflagration; expulsion; the attacks of the enemy
the next spring, and the brave and successful resistance of
Hammond, her father, and brother. Mrs. Courtright, No.
7, Mr. Marcey, No. 10, Mr. Rogers, No. 1 1, relate brief
but affecting incidents of the flight, showing the sufferings
of our exiled people in the wilderness; that of Mr. Rogers
going also to show the continued attacks of the savages,
and a successful instance of resistance. Colonel Ransom,
No. 8, sets forth, as near as possible, the number of men
in the two companies; the active service they saw; the
entreaties to be allowed to return, to defend their homes,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 4!
on the news of the invasion ; appearance of the battlefield ;
death of his father; and his own captivity in 1780.
Major E. Blackman, No. 1 2, shows the number of forts ;
manner of building by the people, without "fee or reward;"
old men form companies to keep garrison. See, also, extract
from old Westmoreland records in our memorial.
Ishmael Bennett, No. 9, shows that, in. the expulsion,
any attempt to take away goods was followed with death,
as in the case of St. John and Leach; shows the cruel tor
tures of the prisoners ; the flight, and destruction of every
thing. Rev. B. Bidlack, No. 13, shows his service as a
militiaman, without pay ; the services of his family ; his aged
father commanding a company of old men garrisoning a
fort, while his son (brother of Mr. B. Bidlack) led a com
pany into the battle, and fell at the head of his men; the
captivity of his father afterwards ; his own enlistment, with
ten or twelve other men, at Wyoming. Joseph Slocum,
No. 14, shows the sufferings of his family, and the constant
attacks of the savages. Cornelius Courtright, No. 15, show
ing that in the battle, even on our devoted left, our men
did not fly till they had fought, and were overpowered.
Mrs. Cooper, No. 16, shows, among other interesting
matter, the repeated attempts made to obtain something to
help the exiles on their way, and the extreme hunger to
which some of them were reduced. General William Ross,
No. 1 7, besides much interesting matter in respect to his
own family, is more full in regard to the invasion of 1779;
the number of forts; the general duty performed without
pay ; and especially sustains the assertion in our memorial,
"that every man in Wyoming might be considered as en
listed for and during the war." Anderson Dana, No. 18,
showing the loss of life to his family, and total ruin of
property.
No. 19, official letter of Colonel Butler, showing the inva
sion in the spring of 1779.
No. 20, Elisha Harding, Esq's statement. The committee
forward the statement of this aged and respectable citizen,
as he sent it; marking for omission, should it be printed,
42 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
one or two immaterial sentences. It is full of interesting
matter.
The Wyoming committee would observe that, in answer
to their inquiries of the aged people for information, as was
inevitable from the great lapse of time, much that was
learned from friends, now deceased, was mixed up with
what was personally known ; and it therefore seemed hardly
proper to ask an oath for its verification. This was deemed
the less necessary, as those ancient and respectable relics of
that trying period, standing, as it were, with one foot on
the threshold of the judgment seat, could hardly be sup
posed to add more solemnity to their averments, or inspire
more credence in their declarations, by any mere legal form
of attestation.
Their statements were taken by one of the committee
much more in detail, and abridged, omitting repetitions and
irrelevant matter. There is an old assessment of 1781, and
a passage or two in the ancient votes of Westmoreland,
which a sense of duty requires us to bring to your notice.
It is not without a slight feeling of mortified pride, however
improper to be indulged, that we expose to the world the
utter poverty and nakedness of the land; how completely
this fair and flourishing settlement was prostrated and im
poverished, by the miseries of war. To awaken your com
miseration we certainly should not do it. But our appeal
is not to the pity but to the justice of our country. These
misfortunes, this overwhelming and unequalled ruin, were
brought on us by the Government, in withdrawing, for the
service of the country elsewhere, the whole force which
God and nature had provided for our defence at home, and
which Congress had raised for that special purpose. No.
21, the assessment or tax list of Westmoreland, for 1781.
It shows at once the numbers and property of the settle
ment. By the laws of Connecticut, a poll tax was laid ;
those from 1 6 to 21 being rated at £9 ; those from 2 1 to
70 at £18 ; ministers of the gospel, and a few others, were
exempt. By the assessment, it will appear that Westmore
land, which raised for the continental establishment in
1776^77 more than 250 men, had left, in 1781, but 114
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 43
men from 21 to 70, and 24 boys from 16 to 21, making, in
all, but 140 males from 16 to 70; and that, deducting
,£2,286, the assessment on persons, there remains only
,£2,248 value of property in the whole country on which to
levy a tax — a considerable less sum, it is presumed, than
some individuals on your committee are assessed. The oxen
were reduced to less than 23 pair. There were 7 horse
kind, of i year old ; 4 of 2 years old ; and 2 silver watches
— one belonging the widow Durkee, whose husband fell in
the battle.
In the old Westmoreland record for the year, we find the
following :
"At a town meeting legally warned and held in West
moreland, on the 8th day of September, 1781, voted, that
John Hurlbut, Esq., be moderator for said meeting."
"Voted, that a tax be granted of 4^. on the pound, as
soon as the list can be completed, to be paid either in hard
money, or in produce at the following prices: flax, lod. per
pound ; wheat, $s. 6d. per bushel ; rye, 2s. 6d. ; and corn,
at 2s. per bushel."
"Voted, that Obadiah Gore and John Franklin be agents
to negotiate a petition, praying for an abatement of taxes
for the present list of 1781, at the General Assembly in
October next."
We do not know, but presume the Assembly of Connec
ticut granted the request ; for to have insisted on the full
payment of the tax, in their impoverished condition, would
have been like wringing the last drop of blood from the
heart of misery.
By a vote of the town, the 3d of December, the time
for paying the tax in flax and grain was extended to
"the 1st day of January, 1782; and the constables in
structed* to conform themselves accordingly." The com
mittee may, perhaps, be pleased to learn how the grain was
disposed of, Connecticut having probably remitted it for the
use of the town.
"At a town meeting, legally warned, in and for the town
of Westmoreland, April 8, 1782 —
"Voted, that the town treasurer be desired to grind up
44 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
so much of the public wheat as to make 200 pounds of
biscuit, and keep it made and so deposited as that the nec
essary scouts may instantly be supplied, from time to time,
as the occasion requires."
These brief references and statements we trust may not
be deemed intrusive by the honorable committee ; and with
them we respectfully submit our cause.
No. i.
Statement of Mrs. Bidlack.
Mrs. Sarah Bidlack, wife of Benjamin Bidlack, now eighty
years old, was about twenty at the time of the battle. She
was the daughter of Obadiah Gore, Esq. Her brother,
Obadiah Gore, was a lieutenant in the army, and out on
service at the time of the invasion. Her brothers, Daniel,
Samuel, Asa, George, and Silas, (5,) were in the battle.
Timothy Pierce and John Murfee, who married her sisters,
were both in the battle ; of these seven, five were killed.
Samuel escaped unhurt, and Daniel was wounded. Mrs.
B. was in Forty fort when it surrendered. Under the cap
itulation they staid ten days or two weeks, but the savages
continuing to plunder and burn, they were obliged to fly.
Their property was stolen, burned, or destroyed ; nothing
was left them.
No. 2.
Statement of Mrs. Huldah Carey.
Mrs. Huldah Carey, daughter of Philip Weeks, was five
years old the March before the battle ; her father was then
an aged man ; her brothers, Philip, Jonathan, and Barthol
omew ; Silas Benedict, who married Mr. Jonathan' Week's
daughter; Jabez Beers, her mother's brother; Josiah Car
man, her mother's cousin; and Robert Bates, who boarded
with them — making seven from one farm — went out to the
battle, and were all slain. Her father, with twelve grand
children, and the rest of the family that remained, fled
through the wilderness. They burned his houses and barn ;
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 45
his harvests were lost, and he left destitute and almost
childless.
No. 3.
Statement of Colonel Edwin Inman.
Mr. Inman was here at the time of the battle ; he had
five brothers in the Indian battle ; there were seven brothers
of them ; two of them, Elijah and Israel, were killed in the
engagement ; a third, David, lay in the water to conceal
himself from the Indians, having got to the river, from
which he contracted an illness which soon terminated his
life. His father, an aged man, with the family, fled through
the wilderness ; on their return, the house and barn were
burned, their cattle were gone, their harvest entirely lost
In November, the same year, his brother Isaac went out
a short distance from the house, and, as was customary,
armed ; guns were heard, but nothing more was known of
him that winter. The snow soon fell, and it was supposed
he might have been taken away prisoner, but in the spring
his body was found in a creek not far distant, shockingly
mangled. He had been shot, beaten with a club, and scalped ;
thus, four of his brothers fell. Mr. Inman was between four
teen and fifteen at the time of the battle ; he had been out
frequently on scouting parties, as every one had who could
carry a gun. The old men kept garrison ; they took arms
to the fields with them when they went to work ; the whole
settlement was an armed settlement, though too weak to
protect themselves from the murderous inroads of the sav
ages. Mr. Inman received no pay when out on duty ; he
is sure his brothers did not ; he does not think any of the
militia did ; never knew of their receiving any, either for
building forts or doing duty in the field or in garrisons. The
times were distressing, and each one did all he could for
the common defence. The buildings were generally burned
immediately after the battle ; the few that were left were
mostly burned the spring following, when the enemy came
down, several hundred strong, but were kept in some check
by Captain Spalding's company.
46 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
No. 4.
Statement of Stephen Abbott.
Stephen Abbott is sixty-eight years old ; resides on his
farm in Wyoming; his father, John Abbott, was a settler
here in the revolutionary war, and was in the battle in J uly,
1778, in Captain James Bidlack's company ; he was among
the few who escaped ; the father and family fled down the
river, having no means of sustenance ; the latter part of
July, his father came back, in hopes to save a part of his
harvest ; in attempting to do so, being at work with Isaac
Williams, they were attacked by a party of Indians, and
both killed. The widowed mother, with nine children, the
deponent being one, set out through the wilderness on foot,
to go to Connecticut to their friends ; on the way they lived
chiefly on charity, but were helped to provisions when they
passed detachments of the army. Mrs. Abbott was grand
daughter to Constante Searle ; her grandfather was in the
battle, and was killed ; he was advanced in life ; he had three
children married, and a number of grandchildren ; Captain
Deathick Hewitt was his son-in-law ; his son, Roger Searle,
a young man between seventeen and eighteen, was also in
the battle ; Roger Searle and William Buck, a boy of about
fourteen, stood together in the fight, and when they were
obliged to t retreat, fled together, the Indians in close pur
suit; an Indian or white man called, "Stop, and you shall
have quarter ;" Buck, almost exhausted, was fain to listen
to them, and stopped ; young Searle looked over his
shoulder, and as they came up with Buck, they struck the
tomahawk into his head ; Searle passed on and escaped.
Mr. Abbott's house, with its contents, and barn, were burned,
their cattle lost, their harvest lost, nothing was saved.
No. 5.
Statement of Mrs. Jenkins.
Mrs. Bertha Jenkins, widow of the late Colonel John
Jenkins, was 24 years old at the time of the battle, now 84,
in good health, and recollection perfect. Her husband had
been taken prisoner while out on a scouting party to Wya-
THE WYOMING MASSACRE 47
1 using, November, 1777, the year before the battle. Old
Mr. York (father of Miner York) and Lemuel Finch were
taken at the same time. They were taken to Niagara. In
the spring Mr. Jenkins was sent, under an escort of Indians,
to Albany, to be exchanged for an Indian chief, then a
prisoner there. On arriving, the chief had just died of
small-pox. The party wished to take him back, but he was
protected. It was thought the savages would have killed
him because their chief had died. Mrs. Jenkins was in
Jenkins fort at its surrender, the day before the battle. It
had a garrison of 1 7, mostly aged persons ; but 7 had been
killed two days 'previous, being surprised by the Indians
when at work at their corn in Exeter ; so they had no force
to resist. Jenkins fort was but a short distance above
Wintermoot's, occupied the day of the battle by the enemy.
On the day of the battle Mrs. J. went out and sat on a log
between the forts, and heard the firing ; she could hear the
savage whoop begin on one end of the line, and, being
taken up and repeated, run, whoop after whoop, then yell
after yell, from one end to the other. It was a mournful
sound, and boded ill to our people. The next day (being-
still a prisoner) she was at Wintermoot's, and went down,
in company with Mrs. Ingersoll and Mrs. Gardiner, to the
battle ground — Mrs. G. being allowed to go and take leave
of her husband, who was a prisoner. While Mrs. Gardiner
went to bid her husband farewell, she saw Philip Winter-
moot, a tory, whom she was well acquainted with. " Look,"
said he, "but don't seem to see." The dead lay all around,
and there were places where half-burnt legs and arms
showed the cruel tortures our poor people must have suf
fered. Some of the dead she knew. Mrs. Jenkins saw the
corpse of Murphy, who was slain. He was not tortured ;
and Mrs. M. seems more resigned, for the dread of her
husband being burned or tortured added greatly to her
distress. She, too, was driven off, and in two days after
getting through the wilderness had a child born.
The women, Mrs. Jenkins says, did and suffered their
part in those trying times. They gathered, husked, and
garnered the corn, while the men were out on duty. They
48 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
made saltpetre to manufacture powder. We took up the
floors, dug out the earth, put it into casks, as we do ashes
to leech, and run water through it. Then took ashes, put
in another cask, and made lie ; mixed the water run through
the earth with weak lie; boiled it, set it, and the saltpetre
rose on the top. We used charcoal and sulphur. Mr.
Hollenback went down to the river and brought up a
pounder.
The battle took place Friday, the 3d of July ; and on
Monday, the 6th, the prisoners who capitulated in Jenkins
fort set out on the exile through the wilderness. Her
husband, Colonel Jenkins, had a commission in the conti
nental army, and served to the close of the war.
The children ofRoswell Franklin staid at their house the
first night after their return. The Indians took their mother
and the children, one an infant. Their father was from
home. They put fire between two beds, so that it might
not kindle till they were far away. When the father and
the party overtook the savages, after several days' travel,
and a battle began, the Indians shot the mother — the two
children ran to their father. The infant was never after
heard of. This was two years after the battle.
No. 6.
Statement of Mrs. Myers.
Mrs. Myers is 76 years of age. Her family were from
Scituate, Rhode Island. They were early settlers at Wyo
ming. Mrs. M. was in Forty fort at the time of the battle.
Her brother Solomon was in the battle. Captain Durkee,
Lieutenant Phinean Pearce, and one or two others, had
ridden all night — got in just as they were marching out,
and were all killed. They marched out with colors, drums,
and fifes. After the capitulation, the savages began to burn
and plunder.
Colonel Dcnnison sent for Colonel J. Butler. They sat
down near where Mrs. M. and another girl were sitting.
Colonel D. complained of the infraction of the articles. " I
will put a stop to it," said Colonel Butler. The savage
depredations became worse, and Colonel Dennison, once or
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 49
twice, sent for Butler, and earnestly expostulated against
their conduct, saying, articles so agreed on were considered
binding, in honor, by all nations.
"To tell you the truth," said Colonel Butler, waving his
hand impatiently, " I can do nothing with them — I can do
nothing with them." To show they would do as they
pleased, an Indian came in and took the hat from Colonel
Dennison's head ; another came in and ordered him to take
off the frock he wore. This Colonel D. resisted. The
Indian seized hold of the frock and raised his tomahawk.
Colonel D. was forced to comply ; but seeming to find diffi
culty in getting it off, stepped backward where a young
woman sat, who lived at his house. She understood the
manoeuvre, and took from the pocket a purse of the pittance
of the town money, and hid it under her apron. So, though
but a trifle, it was saved. The Indian then got the frock.
Fires were lighting all around them. Mrs. M. would go
out to see if her father's house was safe ; for a few days it
was left; but one morning she went to look, and the flames
were just bursting out. The valley then seemed all on fire ;
smoke and fire rose from all quarters.
In the flight that followed, Mrs. Myers went down the
river ; most of the family through the wilderness.
The next spring having returned, her father and brother
went out to prepare some ground to plant ; were waylaid
and taken by Indians. Lebeus Hammond, who had escaped
from the fatal ring on the day of the battle, had also been
taken.
The prisoners saw enough to be satisfied that they were
doomed to death. On the third night they rose on their
enemy ; after a desperate struggle, killed all but one or
two, who fled, and returned home, with the arms of their
captors as trophies.
No. 7.
Statement of Mrs. Courtright.
Mrs. Catharine Courtright, wife of Cornelius Court-
right, Esq., of Pittston, was 12 years old at the time of the
battle. Her maiden name was Kennedy.
4*
5<D THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
At the time of the battle she was in the Wilkesbarre fort.
When the overthrow of our people became certain, they
set out through the wilderness. First night staid at the
Seven-mile house. Mrs. Dana and her family were there,
and news was brought that Mr. Dana and her daughter's
husband, Mr. Whiting, were both slain. The women walked
round, crying and wringing their hands. On the way, the
second day, Mrs. Treusdale, wife of John Treusdale, had a
child born. The children were told to go forward a short
distance. After some time, Mrs. Treusdale and baby were
brought along on a sheet fastened between two horses. In
about a year the child died, and Mrs. T. said it seemed
more hard to part, as she had seen with it so much sorrow.
As they went, they saw, sitting by the way-side, a woman
and 8 or 9 children, without any food ; Mrs. Courtright's
mother shared with them the little she had. Their property
was all lost. They went to their friends, in Orange county,
New York.
No. 8
Statement of Colonel Ransom.
George P. Ransom is 76 years of age ; when 14, he joined
his father's company. The number of men he does not
remember exactly, but a pay roll of September to October,
1777, showed there were then 62 names ; Mr. R. remem
bers the names of 10 more who belonged when they went
out : Porter, Worden, Austin, Colton, two brother Saw
yers, both died of the camp distemper; Smith, Spencer,
died ; Gaylord, died ; Underwood was discharged, having a
rupture ; Porter was killed at Millstone. He thinks the
company had 80 men when they went out ; Captain Dur-
kee's company was about as large. In twenty days from
our being ordered to march, we were in active service. At
Millstone the two Wyoming troops, called the independent
companies, with a party of New Jersey militia, under the
command of Governor Dickerson, attacked a large foraging;
party of the enemy that had come out with three pieces of
cannon ; we took 47 wagons, more than a hundred horses,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 5 I
and recovered all the cattle and hogs the enemy had plun
dered. Justice Porter, of our company, was cut in two by
a cannon shot in the affair.
The companies were at the affairs of Boundbrook, at
Brandywine, Germantown, and Mud fort. A detachment
from the companies shared in the honor of that bombard
ment ; Lieutenant Spalding commanded the detachment.
Constant Matherson, one of our best and bravest men, fell
there. Frequent rumors reached us that the enemy medi
tated an attack upon our homes at Wyoming, which we
were raised to defend. Our officers petitioned to be sent
there, but Congress and his excellency could not let us go.
At length the danger became so imminent, and the en
treaties from home so pressing, that many obtained fur
loughs to return, and Congress consolidated the two com
panies into one, under Captain Spalding, and detached it
for Wyoming ; but it got there too late. Some few of the
officers, Lieutenant Pearce among the number, by riding all
night through the wilderness, got in just time enough to die
on the field. I was with Captain Spalding' s company, at
Shups, the day of the battle, between 40 and 50 miles
distant. We afterwards went in with Colonel Butler, to
restrain the ravages of the Indians, and helped to bury the
dead as soon as it could be done. The battlefield presented
a distressing sight; in a ring, round a rock, there lay 18 or
20 mangled bodies. Prisoners taken on the field were
placed in a circle, surrounded by Indians, and a squaw set
to butcher them. Lebeus Hammond, for many years after
wards a respectable citizen of Tioga county, New York, was
one of the devoted. Seeing one after another perish by her
bloody hand, he sprang, broke through the circle, out
stripped his pursuers, and escaped.
All around the field there was evidence of cruel torture.
On the 6th of December, 1780, Mr. Ransom was taken
prisoner, with five others, by a party of Butler's rangers,
with 70 Indians, and carried into captivity ; they all suffered
greatly. From Montreal he was sent to Prison island, from
whence he made his escape, with John Brown and James
52 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Butterfield, in the June following, and rejoined the army at
West Point.
He does not know the number of men in Captain Hewitt's
company. Lieutenant O. Gore enlisted men at Wyoming
for the continental service ; he does not know how many.
Captain Strong also raised men here. Captain Judd was a
lawyer ; does not know of his enlisting men at Wyoming.
The settlements were continually harassed by parties of the
enemy, to the close of the war. Captain Ransom (Mr.
Ransom's father) was killed in the battle, as was Rufus
Lawrence, a near relative. His father's buildings were
burned, and every thing taken or destroyed in the power
of the savages.
No. 9.
Statement of Islunael Bennett.
Ishmael Bennett is 75 years old; the family were from
Rhode Island. He was with his father in Pittston fort at
the time of the battle. The fort was under the command
of Captain Jeremiah Blanchard. After the battle the enemy
came over, and the fort capitulated. St. John and Leach
were moving off with an ox team and their goods ; one of
the oxen was shot down, St. John wounded and tomahawked ;
Leach had a child in his arms ; the Indians tomahawked
him, and then handed the child, all covered with its father's
blood, to the mother. The widows returned to the fort.
It seemed the purpose of the Indians to expel the inhabi
tants, but not to allow them to take away any thing. The
battle was on the opposite side of the river, just below. On
the night of the battle, seeing fires under some large oaks,
near the river, Mr. Bennett, his father, Esquire Wrhitaker,
and old Captain Blanchard, went down to the river side ;
they could see naked white men running round the fires ;
could hear the cries of agony ; could see the savages fol
lowing with their spears, and hear their yells ; it was a
dreadful sight. Mr. Bennett married the widow of Captain
Dethic Hewitt. She has told him that Captain Hewitt had
a full company ; he does not know how many ; (others think
it was not full, but contained about 50).
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 53
The prisoners were kept at the fort 7 or 8 days ; squaws
would come over with scalps of our people strung together,
and worn as a band round their waist; they were then all
sent off; about 60 started together, and. as if there was
some touch of mercy left, they let them take a cow or two ;
fires were burning all around them ; their houses were
burned and harvest lost. They passed the bodies of St.
John and Leach, on their way out ; Zebulon Marcey and
family were with them. Mr. Marcey had gone before. He
had shot one of the Indians, above the Narrows, the day
before the battle, and the savages swore they would have his
scalp if they had to hunt it for seven years. A child of
Mr. Marcey died on their way out.
The loss and ruin seemed universal ; the distress no
tongue can tell. If a few were left, no one could tell why,
unless, tired of slaughter and plunder, they were allowed to
remain for future vengeance ; and before another year was
out they had their turn of suffering.
No. 10.
Statement of Ebenezer Marcey.
Mr. Ebenezer Marcey is the son of Ebenezer Marcey,
Esq., who was here at the time of the battle. His father's
family were driven into exile, their house burned, and their
barn ; their cattle driven away ; their harvest chiefly lost.
His mother had a child born in the wilderness, but was com
pelled to go on ; the first day, only a mile or two ; the
second day five miles, on foot, when she was taken in a
wagon, and in a week's time was 120 miles from the place
of the birth of the child. Such was the suffering of the day.
No. ii.
Statement of Jose Rogers.
Jose Rogers is now 67 years old ; was at Wyoming at
the time of the battle, in Plymouth fort. His grandfather,
with the family, fled down the river ; passed through the
wilderness, very long and desolate, from Sunbury, towards
Reading; on the way, his grandmother, an aged woman,
54 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
overcome by fatigue, alarm and distress, died in the wilder
ness. They all suffered much. On reaching the German
settlements, in Berks county, they were treated with great
pity and tenderness, were supplied with food, and helped
on their way. In the flight they took two horses, and on
their return found two of their cows ; but their houses, barns,
and every thing that fire could destroy, were burned ; their
harvest all lost. They were in that short time reduced
from the competence of well-living farmers to poverty. But
such was then the lot of their neighbors. Having got re
settled in the early part of 1780, his brother Jonah, with
three others, were taken by the Indians, on their way
through the northern wilds, going into captivity. They
rose in the night on the savages, killed four of them,
wounded another ; one only escaped unhurt They brought
in their arms.
No. 12.
Statement of Major E. Blackman.
Eleazer Blackman is 72 years old. He was here at the
time of the Indian battle, being then between 1 1 and 1 2
years of age. Though too young to carry his musket, he
helped to build the forts. There was a public fort at Ply
mouth, one at Kingston, Forty fort (Wintermoot's, its
integrity always suspected,) fort Jenkins in Exeter, one at
Pittston, and the fort at Wilkesbarre ; besides these, there
were block-houses of less size, built by individuals, or two
or three families. That at Wilkesbarre contained, Mr. B.
thinks, from a quarter to half an acre. It surrounded the
public buildings. It was formed by digging a ditch, in whicty
logs, sharp at top, 15 or 16 feet long, were set in on end
closely together, with the corners rounded, so as to flank
the fort. The Wilkesbarre fort had one gate ; that of Forty
fort had two gates. Mr. B. helped to build that at Wilkes
barre ; they were all built by common labor. He received
nothing, and he believes there was nothing ever charged or
paid for building them.
The forts were garrisoned by companies formed of old
men ; Captain Wm. Hooker Smith (a physician and surgeon
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 55
also) commanded in that at Wilkesbarre; they were called
the Reformadoes. Mr. Blackmail's father, Elisha, was lieu
tenant. The ensign, Waterman, went out to battle and was
slain.
Mr. Blackman's brother Elisha was in the battle, and
escaped. His brother-in-law, Darius Shafford, who a short
time before had married his sister, was in the battle and
killed. As he fell, he said to his brother Phineas, who stood
by his side, " Brother, I am mortally hurt ; take care of
Lavinia."
Mr. B.'s father said to his wife: "Take the children,
and make the best of your way to a place of safety ; we
must stay and defend the fort." The family set out by the
Warrior's path, but, in their alarm and distress, took no
provisions. They got on their way a scanty supply of
whortleberries. On the third day, almost famished and
exhausted, they got to the German settlements in North
ampton, whose kindness they never can forget. They
furnished the party food, gave them shelter, and were very
kind. Depending chiefly on charity, they went on to Con
necticut to their former friends ; some to Plymouth, Litch-
field county, west and south of Hartford ; the others to
Lebanon, where they immediately joined in labor to support
themselves.
His father's house, furniture, barn, were burnt and de
stroyed. He lost his oxen and all his neat stock but two
cows, which, by singular good fortune, were saved. They
took two horses with them. The path through the wilder
ness was crowded with fugitives — old men, women and
children. On the first night of their setting out, a^child
was born in the mountains ; Mr. B. forgets the name, and
does not know the fate of the mother.
No. 13.
Statement of Rev. B. Bidlack.
Benjamin Bidlack is now about 81 years of age. He
enlisted in Connecticut, in Captain Filden's company, for a
short time ; was down at Boston ; marched to New York.
56 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
Had a brother in the battle of Long Island, taken prisoner,
confined in the Sugar-house, and, as he believes, starved to
death. In 1777 came to Wyoming, where his father lived.
Was out on several scouting parties — one under Captain
Whittlesey, from Plymouth ; marched up the river near 50
miles ; then over 30 odd in the party. There were rumors
that the Indians were meditating an attack. There were
none able to bear arms but what turned out and acted as
soldiers. He went to Tunkhannock and Black Walnut
bottom ; saw signs that the Indians had been there. Old
gray-headed men passed this time for active duty, formed
companies to keep garrison in the fort, while the young men
engaged in more active service ; this was necessary, as so
many of the able-bodied men were out in the continental
service with Washington's army. Captain Wm. Hooker
Smith commanded one company of the old men ; his (Mr.
Bidlack's) father commanded another, as he has understood.
His brother, James Bidlack, led the Wilkesbarre company
in the field of battle, and fell at the head of his men without
retreating ; and the savages, as he was told and believed,
threw his body on the burning logs of the fort His
father and family fled down the river. In March, of 1779,
his father was taken prisoner by a party of Indians, and
kept several years in captivity. Mr. B. Bidlack was not
here at the time of the battle, having enlisted with 1 1 or 1 2
other Wyoming boys in Captain Thomas Worley's me
chanics' artillery company, Carlisle, where they worked and
trained, making arms and practising their use for some time.
St. John, Caleb Forsythe, Benjamin Tillman, Ebenezer
Goss, were among the Wyoming men who enlisted with
him. He marched into Jersey under Colonel De Hart and
Captain Wm. Heline. He was at the taking of Cornwallis,
at York, in Virginia ; the thunder of the cannon and flash
ing fire lighting up the night seemed yet present to his
imagination ; and afterwards in active service in the Jerseys.
While in Wyoming, and doing duty as a militiaman, or on
scouting parties, he received no pay. He thinks none of
the militia received pay, either for building forts or acting
as militia for the defence of the settlement.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 57
No. 14.
Statement of Joseph S locum.
Joseph Slocum was here at the time of the battle, being
then a child too young to remember. The early facts he
relates are derived from his family, and he has no question
of their correctness. His eldest brother, Giles, was in the
battle, and his brother-in-law, Hugh Forsman. Giles escaped
to Monockesy island, and buried himself in the sand and
bushes, the Indians in search ; they found another man,
who had also reached the island ; heard their conversation ;
he begged hard for his life, but they slew him. Giles lay
till night ; when the enemy had returned, he waded back
to shore, and there met Nathan Carey, who had escaped ;
they went together, and got safe to Forty fort. Mr. Slo-
cum's father was named Jonathan ; he was of the society of
Friends, or Quakers. He did not remove in the general
flight; for a short time he was unmolested. Mr. Forsman
was an officer in Captain Hewitt's company, perhaps the
only man who brought in his gun. Captain Hewitt's com
pany was on the right, and Forsman on the right of the
company. Our men were breaking off from the left, where
we were outflanked. Captain Hewitt ordered the drummer
to strike up, and called his officers to parley, but the con
fusion was too great ; many from our left wing were already
60 rods ahead, and the Indians close in pursuit, before
Hewitt's company gave way. Hewitt swore he would not
run, and fell ; only 1 5 of his company escaped. Forsman
saw that where two or three of our people ran together the
Indians gathered and were more eager in pursuit. He took
a course alone, and got in safe. Mr. Slocum' s house was
on the east corner of the town plot. In the early part of
November, after the battle, the Indians came upon them.
Two lads, named Kingsly, were grinding a knife near the
door ; they shot the eldest, and scalped him with the knife
he was grinding ; believes his name was Nathan, a boy of
14 or 15. The first alarm the family had was the gun.
Mr. Slocum, with his sons, except Ebenezer, were at work
on the flats, finishing the corn harvest Old Mr. Kingsly,
father of the two boys, had been taken by the Indians some
58 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
time before, and was then in captivity. Mr. Slocum had
kindly offered to Mrs. K. and her children a home with
him, till they could look out for some other way to get
along. The Indians came into the house and took up
Ebenezer ; the mother stepped up and begged him off —
said he was lame — when the savages put him down, and
caught up Frances, a daughter, aged five years ; carried
her and the younger Kingsly boy away. In the mean time
the rest of the family had fled to the fort, or hid in the
bushes. The enemy plundered the house ; there were three
of them. On hearing the gun, our people at the fort took
the alarm, and Colonel Butler ordered out a company of
men, who marched up to Mr. Slocum's house. Mrs. S.
had fled to the swamp, beyond a log fence. Seeing some
thing move in the bushes, our men drew up to fire ; Mrs.
S., having discovered her husband, showed herself, and
probably saved her life. Mr. Slocum then moved his family
into the fort. The hay and fodder were left at the place,
and Colonel Butler used to send a file of men to guard
them while they fed the cattle. In December, (no Indians
having been seen for some time,) Mr. Slocum, his wife's
father, Isaac Tripp, Esq., (who had been representative
from Westmoreland in the Assembly,) and William Slocum,
ventured out to fodder without a guard. Presently a cry
of Indians was raised by one of them ; the savages had lain
in ambush on the hill by (now) Bowman's tan-yard. They
ran ; Mr. Tripp, being an old man, was soon overtaken and
speared nine times and scalped. Mr. Slocum and William
ran towards the public square, but parted — Mr. S. keeping
the path, William taking off through the burying ground.
They shot Mr. Slocum and scalped him. A spent ball
wounded William in the leg, but did not break the bone,
and he got into the fort. The bodies of Mr. Slocum and
Mr. Tripp were found, dreadfully mangled, and buried.
Thus, in the space of two months, a sister was carried
into captivity, a father and grandfather cruelly slain, a
brother wounded, and their house plundered.
The family heard no tidings of their sister. After the
\var was over, and intercouse with the lake country was
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 59
opened, Mr. Slocum's brothers, Ebenezer, Benjamin, Isaac,
and himself, set out to search for her. They went into the
lake country, inquiring of the Indians and of every one who
could probably give them any information ; travelled on to
Niagara ; offered rewards for her discovery, and finally vis
ited Detroit. But all their inquiries were in vain ; nothing
could be learned to give them any clew to her fate. Time
passed on, and they supposed she must be mouldering in
the grave. Her recent extraordinary discovery, having
been published in the papers, is presumed to be generally
known, and is not, therefore, detailed here.
No. 15.
Statement of Cornelius Courtright, Esq.
Cornelius Courtright, Esq. (for several years a member
of the Assembly from Luzerne county) is now seventy-four
years old. He was not here at the time of the battle, but
having been a neighbor to, and very intimate with, Captain
Daniel Gore and George Cooper, having in old times, when
at their hunting cabins, heard them talk over the Indian
battle, he will state what he heard, and sincerely believes to
be true.
George Cooper and the son of big Abraham Westbrook
stood together in the battle. They were on the left wing,
near the marsh. The ground had many yellow pine trees
and scrub bushes where they were. It was evident the
Indians in great number were turning their left flank. A
ball struck a tree just above Westbrook's head. Cooper
and Westbrook had both discharged their pieces, when an
Indian rushed on Cooper with his spear. Cooper dropped
in a ball hastily, fired, the Indian fell dead within two rods
of him. "Our men are retreating," said Westbrook.
"I will have one more shot," said Cooper ; but the enemy
pressed so close, and in such numbers, they were* obliged
to fly. Westbrook has told this to Mr. Courtright. Cooper
fled towards the river, several Indians in pursuit. He came
to a log fence, which he cleared at a bound ; the Indians
sprang on it with such weight it tumbled down, rolling them
over ; this gave him an advantage. He reached the river ;
60 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
the Indians called, offering him quarter. He would not
trust them. Passing over the island, he saw, standing in
the river, the opposite side of the island, one of our men,
who could not swim. "Put your hand on my shoulder,"
said Cooper ; the deep water was not far, so they both got
over. It was John Abbott, afterwards murdered by the
Indians.
No. 1 6.
Statement of Mrs. Cooper.
Mrs. Cooper, widow of George Cooper, is now seventy-
eight years old. Her maiden name was Phoebe Billings ;
she was born in Duchess county, New York. Her family
came to Wyoming in 1774; she was married two years
before the battle, being then seventeen years old.
There was a fortification by the block-house, near, Benj.
Courtright's, called after the person who lived there, Cap
tain Rosecran's fort. The inhabitants of the neighborhood,
on near approach of the enemy, had gathered together at
Rosecran's. On the 2d July, a scouting party had found a
strange canoe, with seven paddles, from which they con
cluded a party of Indians were on their side of the river.
The same day a messenger from Wilkesbarre fort came up,
warning of danger, and advising the people to go over to
Forty fort, or down to that of Wilkesbarre. There was
much alarm and confusion ; families were separated ; some
mothers went to one fort, part of their children to another.
Mrs. Cooper went to Forty fort, her husband and her father's
family with her. Captain Durkee, Major Pierce, and another
officer from the army, who had ridden all night, came in,
got some hasty refreshment, and went out immediately to
the battle. Her husband had been out on picket guard ;
he heard the drum, and knew they were marching out ;
came ip, got some food, and hastened to join our little
army. Mr. Cooper made his escape, as told by Mr. Court-
right, and went to Wilkesbarre fort. Next -morning, came
over to Forty fort for her ; they crossed the river and went
up the mountain towards the wilderness, leaving Mrs. Cooper
and others on the mountain. Mr. Cooper and James Stark
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 6 1
returned, in hope of getting provisions, and two horses from
the flats ; when they came near where the horses were, they
saw a body of Indians, and were obliged to return empty
handed. The next day they returned again, and were not
more successful ; the Indians were spread over the whole
valley, and houses were burning in all directions. On the
way through the wilderness, coming to where meal had been
spilled on the ground by some one more fortunate than
they, the men, wearied and exhausted, lay down and lapped
up the meal, to support nature. On the sixth day they
met Mr. Hollenback, who had been in the battle. He had
been out, and hastened back with a little refreshment. He
bid them -be of good cheer, for a packhorse of bread would
be brought on presently. Isaac Williams (the same who
was murdered a short time after with John Abbott) soon
came up with the bread, and every one had a small piece ;
it was divided among all that were there. On the seventh
night they got to Stroudsburg, met Captain Spalding's
company, and got some relief. From Stroudsburg, Mrs.
Cooper, her mother, and others, fourteen or fifteen in num
ber, women and children, went on to their former home, in
Dutchess county, living on the chanty of the people as they
passed. Mr. Cooper joined with others under Colonel
Butler and Captain Spalding, and returned to Wyoming,
and helped to bury the dead. Mr. Cooper had been in
active service most of the preceding year. He was fre
quently out on scouting parties ; was in the party that went
up to Wyalusing the March previous. She never knew of
his receiving any pay, and thinks he never did. Provisions
might sometimes have been found him, but generally he
found his own. Of the little they had gathered, they lost
every thing.
No. 17.
Statement of General William Ross.
William Ross was here at the time of the battle, being
then seventeen years of age. His father and family moved
from Montville, New London county, Connecticut, in the
62 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
year 1774. His father, Jeremiah, died in 1777. General
Ross had two brothers in the battle ; his only brothers,
Perrin and Jeremiah ; both were slain. Perrin left a widow
and five children ; he wanted one day of being thirty. Jere
miah was nineteen. After the battle, Mr. Ross's family
fled ; two of his sisters, Aleph and Polly, went down the
river to Harris ferry, (now Harrisburg,) and thence to Read
ing, to Stroudsburg, and on to Dutchess county, New York,
where they had relations. Mr. Ross himself, and his sister,
Sarah Slocum, wife of Giles Slocum, went out by the Nes-
copeck path to fort Allen. Passing through the German
settlement, they shared provisions with them hospitably.
From fort Alien they went to Stroudsburg ; there met the
company of Captain Spalding, Mr. Ross's mother, and
three sisters ; his brother Perrin's widow, with her five
orphan children, went out the upper Warrior path, having
only one horse with them, there being ten in their company.
There were more than a hundred flying at the same time,
and only one man, Mr. Fitch, formerly" sheriff of West
moreland. His mother and sister went on to New London ;
the others having met at Stroudsburg, came in when Cap
tain Spalding marched in with his company the middle of
August. About seven miles from Wilkesbarre a party
under Lieutenant J. Jenkins turned off and struck the river
at Pittston, mouth of the Lackawana, and marching down,
met two Indians ; fired on them, but they escaped. Another
party, under the command of Ensign Hollenback, left at
the same point, went down the mountain, and struck the
river at the line of Hanover and Newport. Saw a party of
Indians, who fled' to the river. One man fired on them,
and wounded one, who sprang out, but held to the canoe
till they got over and escaped into the woods. One of the
party swam the river and brought the canoe over. They
then marched up, and the parties met at Wilkesbarre. The
old fort, which stood where the court-house now stands,
had been destroyed. Colonel Butler, who had taken the
command with what force he could muster from our fugitive
people and Captain Spalding's company, took possession of
a log building near where General Ross's house now stands,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 63
formed a picketing around it, and made it their quarters
till they could erect a new fort on the bank of the river,
in front of where Mr. Lord Butler now lives. The new
fort was built by laying two rows of logs horizontally, four
feet apart, and filling up the middle with earth ; built as high
as a man's head, and a ditch on the outside, a step or bench
all round the inside, to step upon to fire over. Tops of
pitch pine trees were laid beyond the ditch, branches all
sharpened and placed outward to impede the enemy if
they should make an assault. In it was one four pounder ;
embrasures were made to fire the gun. It contained about
half an acre. The gate was on the west end. It was
rounded at the corners, so as to flank on all sides.
In three or four days after our men came in, they
marched over to the battle ground. The scene was shock
ing. The remains were gathered as soon as possible, and
buried. There were two rings where prisoners had been
massacred. There were, according to his recollection, nine
bodies in one ; in the other fourteen. From one of these
L. Hammond had sprung and escaped ; and from the other,
Jo. Elliott, in a manner very similar. Mr. Ross understood
his brother Jeremiah was in the ring from which Elliott
escaped. Darius Spafford and Captain Durkee were the
only persons recognised ; the latter was known by having
lost the joint of one finger. General Ross, some years
ago, placed a plain slab of marble in his family burying
ground, in memory of his brother who fell on that disas
trous day, with this inscription.
[ Inscription not furnished to the printer. ]
After the meeting of the Continental Congress, the gen
eral spirit of the people in Wyoming was warm in favor of
liberty. When the two companies were raised, his brother
Perrin was appointed lieutenant. Soon after the troops
were marched away, rumors came that the Indians intended
to attack the settlement. In the fall of 1777, Mr. John
Jenkins, a Mr. York, and another, were taken prisoners, and
carried into captivity. The old men formed companies to
the forts, and those fit for active duty were fre-
64 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
quently called out on scouting parties. In March, 1778,
a party was called out to go to Wyalusing, under Colonel
Dennison, and aid some whigs at Wyalusing to remove.
About 250 men were in the party ; each one was ordered
to provide himself with eight days' provisions, one pound
of powder, four pounds of lead. Pike and Boyd were along.
Mr. Ross well remembers, while our Wyoming boys crossed
a tree over Buttermilk falls creek, with ease, Pike and Boyd,
the first an Irishman, the other an Englishman, could not
run over the log, and had to be helped across. Boyd* was
an excellent disciplinarian, and helped to train our men.
The party arrived at Wyalusing, relieved the families, found
that Indians had been there the day before, built rafts, and
returned down home ; came down in one day ; several days
marching up. Upon the 1st of July, before the battle, Mr.
Ross was out with a party of near 400, who marched up to
Exeter, to where the Hardings and Hadsell had been killed
shortly before. They surprised and killed two Indians.
The dead and mangled bodies of our people were brought
down and buried. The enemy in full force, it is under
stood, were then encamped in a deep ravine on the moun
tains. Other scouting parties went out at various times ;
one under Colonel Dorrance, who went up the river in con
siderable force. Mr. Ross received no pay — no compen
sation for his service or provisions. He does not know that
any others did. He presumes they did not.
Our people built five principal forts : the one at Wilkes-
barre, one at Plymouth, Forty fort at Kingston, Jenkins
fort at the ferry at Pittston, and the Pittston fort at Brown's,
just above the ferry, on the east side of the river. Besides
these were Wintermoot's and smaller fortifications or block
houses.
In March, 1779, before Sullivan arrived with his troops,
there was an invasion of the settlement by a large number
* Note by one of the Committee of Correspondence. — Boyd was in
Forty fort when it surrendered, and recognised by Colonel John Butler.
" Go' to that tree," said Butler, pointing to one outside the gate. " I
hope your honor will allow me the rights of a prisoner of war," said
Boyd. " Go to that tree instantly," said Butler. As he reached the
tree, at a signal, he was shot dead.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE 65
of the enemy. An attack w,as made on Mr. Williams's
house in Wilkesbarre, half a mile from the fort, and bravely
defended by his son, Sergeant Thomas Williams, of the
regular army, then at home. His father was badly wounded.
It is supposed several of the Indians were killed ; and the
family got safe into the fort.
A party of our people were attacked on the Kingston
flats by about twenty Indians, when Williams, Pearce, and
Pettibone, were killed. Follet was shot and scalped, but
got in and recovered. The fort opened a fire on the enemy;
O'Neil was the gunner. It was evident execution was
done ; but it was not until two years afterwards, on the
escape of a prisoner, we learned that the Indian chief who
commanded that expedition was cut in two by a cannon
ball. The Indians surrounded the fort on all sides except
the river, and advanced to storm it in a semi-circle ; our
people opened a fire upon them. There were about 250
Indians. The 4-pounder dispersed them. They burnt every
thing in their way that chanced to be left the preceding year,
or that had been erected since. Mr. Ross had his fodder
about half a mile from the fort, and used to go out to feed
his cattle, armed with his gun. The enemy burnt his hay
and killed or drove off his creatures. Thus it was almost
a perpetual contest; blood flowed on every side; fire and
slaughter were all around us. Besides St. John and Leech,
at Capouse ; Abbott and Williams, at the plains ; and Slocum,
Tripp, and young Kingsley, at Wilkesbarre ; and Inman, at
Hanover, there were Mr. Jamison slain in Hanover, Messrs.
Jackson and Sestre at the mill in Newport, and many on
the other side of the river. Mr. Ross was at the fort when
Bennett, his son, and Hammond, came in, having risen on
their captors, slain all but one, and brought in their arms.
It was judged a noble enterprise. Colonel Butler remarked
that it would be glorious if Rogers, Pike, and their com
panions, who, it was known, were also taken off, could be
as fortunate. In a day or two they came in with the arms
of their captors, having slain all but two. The enemy, in
their incursions, though they generally laid in wait to mur
der, met with frequent losses. Many of them fell. Bitterly
66 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
as Wyoming suffered, she was not wholly unavenged. But
the enemy were much superior on all sides. Our people
were obliged to contract their settlements, and gather round
the forts ; but little land could be cultivated. Our numbers
were greatly reduced, and our property mostly destroyed.
My deliberate opinion is, that if the two companies raised
at Wyoming had been completely armed and disciplined,
and allowed to remain here, these sufferings and losses
would never have happened.
No. 1 8.
Statement of Anderson Dana.
JANUARY 3, 1838.
Anderson Dana was here at the time of the Indian battle.
Born in Ashford, Connecticut. Moved here with his father's
family at the age of 7. He was 1 3 years old at the time
of the engagement. His father had returned from Con
necticut but a few days before the battle, where he had
been as member of Assembly. His father belonged to the
company of old men — "Old Reformadoes" — of which Dr.
William Hooker Smith was captain.
Mr. Dana's father and Mr. Whiting, who had married his
sister, were in the battle. Both were slain. About dusk
Mr. Hollenback came into the Wilkesbarre fort, and told
the issue of the fight; Jo. Elliott soon after. Great distress
in the fort, and anxiety to know who were killed and who had
escaped. The battle was on Friday. On Saturday, Mr. Dana,
his mother, his sister, Mrs. Whiting, two sisters, Susannah
and Sarah, older than himself, three brothers, younger —
Aziel, Sylvester, and Eleazer — set out through the wilder
ness. Old Mr. Downing and his family, the widow of
Captain Durkee, and four children, went out with them.
Mr. Dana had one horse to take their things. Youngest
brother 6 in August. Staid first night at Seven-mile house
(Bullock's.) He had two sons killed in the battle. Next
day down Pokono to Merwines. In their flight took noth
ing but the clothes they had on, a pillow-case of papers,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 6/
which afterwards proved of value, and very little provision.
Old Mr. Downing had been in the fight, and escaped. They
went on to Ashford, Connecticut. Mr. A. Dana remained
in Connecticut 7 years, and learned a trade. His older
brother, Daniel, then a student at Lebanon, fitting for col
lege, came in after a time ; found their house burned ; what
was not taken away by the savages, all destroyed ; the cattle
and horses were all gone ; the harvest utterly lost Daniel
returned and went to Yale, assisted by his friends. Mr.
Dana returned with the family in 1786.
No. 19.
Colonel Butler to General Hand.
GARRISON, WYOMING, March 23, 1779.
HONORED SIR : The intent of this is to inform you of a
late affair at this post. On the 2ist instant there appeared
a number of Indians on the flats, opposite the fort, who had
taken one old man before they appeared on the flats, and
were in pursuit of another, whom the people in the block
house saved by advancing upon them. But our people
were soon obliged to retreat, seeing a superior number,
though there was a very hot fire on both sides. The enemy
immediately ran about the flats, collecting horses and cattle.
I ordered a party over, who, with those stationed in the
block-house, made about forty, and two sub-officers, who
pushed upon them with such bravery that they retreated
through the flats, with a constant fire on both sides, till
they came to the woods, where our men discovered two
large bodies over a little creek ; suppose the whole to be
upwards of two hundred. Our men retreated slowly, firing,
which prevented their pursuing, Indian-like, and got back
to the block-house well, through a heavy fire. The Indians
went immediately in pursuit of horses and cattle again ; our
men, in small parties, pursuing and firing upon them. But,
notwithstanding the activity of our troops, after severe
skirmishing for two hours and a half, the enemy carried off
sixty head of horned cattle, 20 horses, and shot my riding
68 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
horse, which they could not catch, and burnt five barns
that were partly full of grain and hay, and 10 houses, which
the inhabitants had deserted. They shot a number of hogs
and sheep, that they left lying. We had not one man
killed, taken, or wounded, except the one man first men
tioned ; though a considerable number of our men had
bullets through their clothes and hats. Lieutenant Petti-
grew, a brave officer of Colonel Hartley's regiment, had his
ramrod shot to pieces in his hand. It is aggravating to see
the savages drive off cattle and horses, burning and destroy
ing, and we not able to attack them out of the fort. I have
sent by the express, who will hand this to Captain Patter
son, to be forwarded to your honor, a particular account of
the affair, and the particular state of this place, to his ex
cellency General Washington. I mention they have taken
off cattle, &c. ; they have got them out of reach, but we
have no reason to think they have left the place, as a number
of fires were discovered in the side of the mountain last night.
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
ZEB'N BUTLER.
To GEN. HAND.
N. B. — Of the horses and cattle that were taken in the
late actions are 7 continental horses and 8 continental cattle.
SIR : What happened at the close of this letter will
justify my apprehensions of the enemy's not being gone.
At i o'clock, afternoon, a large party were discovered on
this side of the river, advancing towards the fort. They
surrounded the fort on all sides, firing very briskly, while
others were collecting cattle and horses. I sent out about
forty men and a small piece, and drove them back to a
thick wood, across a marsh, where the enemy made a stand.
The skirmishing held to sunset, at this time.
Colonel Bittler to General Washington.
WYOMING, April 2, 1780,
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY i I arrived at this post
the 22d ultimo, after a tedious journey, being obliged to
travel about forty miles of the last of it on foot, the snow
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 69
being so deep. It is yet too deep to get a horse through
the woods. I am making preparation to join as soon as
possible.
I think it my duty to inform your excellency of the late
transactions of the enemy near this post. On the 2/th
March, as three men were at work about three miles above
the garrison, by the river, they were taken. On the 28th,
early in the morning, as two men were making sugar, about
8 miles down the river, one was killed and the other taken.
On the 29th,' early in the morning, about twenty miles
further down on Fishing creek, three men were killed and
three taken. On the same day, in the afternoon, on their
return, they came across a party that went out to give
notice to some men that were out making sugar ; wounded
two of them ; but they all saved themselves by taking to a
house, and all, with the two wounded, are come in ; the
two wounded are like to recover. On the 3Oth, as they
were still returning, they took one man, his wife and child,
who were out making sugar. They dismissed the woman
and child, who say they were above 30 in number, and
confirm the account of the above-mentioned prisoners ; and
on the evening of the same day, the three men mentioned
as having been taken the 2/th March came in, with Indians'
guns, tomahawks, &c., and say that they were taken as
above-mentioned, and carried about 40 miles up the river;
and that, on the 28th March, afternoon, they met a party
of about thirty Indians; one white man and one of the
Indians they knew ; and they met two small parties after
wards, pushing down the river. Those parties told our
men that there were 500 out, and a large party coming on
after them. Brant, with a party, has gone to the Mohawk
river, a party to Minisink, and a party to the west branch
of the Susquehanna.
Those three men, early in the morning of the 29th March,
arose on their captors, killed three, wounded the fourth,
and two ran ; which is confirmed by their bringing in 5
Indian guns, one silver mounted-hanger, some tomahawks,
and other Indian affairs. The parties they met on the 28th
7O THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
March, afternoon, have not done any mischief here yet, as
it was impossible for them to be down so low as where the
above-mentioned was done. We are looking for them
every hour. The three men further say, that by the appear
ance of snow-shoe tracks, as far up as they went, that there
had been numbers of Indians there for some months.
From the above representations, which I have carefully
taken, and have no reason to doubt the truth of them, your
excellency will be able to judge what is necessary for the
defence of the frontier in these parts ; and can only say I
am, with all attention, your excellency's most obedient
servant,
ZEB'N BUTLER, Colonel.
His Excellency Gen. WASHINGTON.
No. '20.
Statement of Elisha Harding.
SIR : In answer to your request, I will begin with the
building of Jenkins fort. In the month of June, 1777, it
was thought proper to commence building forts, for defence
against the enemy. We went to work ; I, but a boy, could
do but little, except driving oxen to haul logs ; the logs
were about eighteen or twenty feet long, and placed in a
ditch of a sufficient depth to stand against any thing that
could be brought by the enemy against it ; the corners so
constructed as to rake any thing on the outside of the fort
that should attempt to assail it ; it was completed, and every
man to his own work ; every thing peaceable until some
time in November, when John Jenkins, jun., a collector of
taxes, went up the river as far as Standingstone, where he
met a party of tories and Indians, and was taken and carried
to Niagara, with two others — a Mr. York and Elemuel
Fitch. They also took a Mr. Fitzgerald, an old man, and
sat him on a flaxbreak, and told him, if he did not renounce
his rebel principles, and declare for the King, they would
kill him. Fitzgerald said that he was an old man, and
could not live but a few years at most ; and that he had
rather die now, and die a friend to his country, than live a
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. /I
few years and die a tory ; the memory of such men ought
never to be forgotten. As to Jenkins and the others, they
were carried to Niagara, and thence to Montreal ; Jenkins
there being exchanged or paroled, returned home in June,
1778.
In 1 778, in the month of May, there was a William Crooks
and Asa Budd went up the river and stopped at Lecord's
house for the night ; Budd said he would go up the river a
piece for a light, leaving Crooks at the house, the family
being gone to the enemy ; when Budd came near the house,
he saw people fording the river below ; he put out his light,
and ran his canoe on shore, and told Crooks, who came
out, but leaving his ammunition, returned, and on his com
ing out of the house was met by the enemy and killed.
Budd, by pushing off his canoe and floating down stream,
made his escape. Soon after, the people thought best to
repair to the fort for safety. Those who went to the Jenkins
fort were the Jenkinses, Wm. Marten, Captain Stephen
Harding, Benjamin Harding, Stukeley Harding, James
Hudsall, Samuel Morgan, Stephen Harding, jun., and Ich-
abod Phelps, a Miner Robbins, John Gardner, and Daniel
Carr. Soon after there was a party of six set out in two
canoes, and passed up the river to a place called Cowyards
rift, about four miles below Tunkhannock, where they went
on shore, and, ascending the bank, saw a party of the enemy
running towards them ; they ran to their canoes, and strove
to pass round the island, to avoid their fire ; but they were
too nigh, were fired on, and two, M. Robbins and Joel
Phelps, were wounded ; they then ran behind the island,
and took the wounded men into one canoe ; and all hands
(the four) went to work and cleared the enemy ; one of the
wounded men, Robbins, died next morning. The men in
the fort, in order to dress their corn, went in parties to
work ; and on the 3<Dth of June, the men from Jenkins fort
went up the river to hoe ; one party for S. Harding, jun.,
and the other to hoe on Hudsall's island, and the old man,
Mr. Hudsall, to work in his tan-yard. They hurried their
work, and finished, and set out for home ; part stopped at
/2 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
the brook to water their horses, three men and a boy, whilst
the other four went on, and had not got more than one
hundred and fifty rods before they were fired on by the
enemy, and the fire was returned by our party ; two only
had guns, who, it was said by Butler, fought as long as
they could stand, but being overpowered by numbers, were
cut to pieces in a most shocking manner, many holes of
the spears in their sides, their arms cut to pieces, toma
hawked, scalped, and their throats cut. The other party
at the creek saw a large party run from the house to where
the firing was ; thought it would be throwing away their
lives to go further ; stripped their horses from the plough,
and turned them loose, and took to the woods, and soon
came on the Indian trail, which was a plain path to follow;
they crossed it, and took their course for home, and soon
came in sight of the Indians' fires ; then, turning west again,
took their course for home, but soon came again on the
Indians' fires, stretched along Button's creek ; they then
turned westward, and cleared their fires, and reached the
fort next morning about sunrise. The old man, Hudsall,
was taken at his yard ; those on the island, hearing the fire
from above, came off. The younger son, John Harding,
stopped to tie the canoe, the other ascending the bank,
were fired on, and James Harding was killed, and Carr
taken prisoner. John, hearing the fire and the groans of
James, jumped into the river and sunk himself under the
willows that hung over the river, with his face out of water,
and lay there until dark, and so escaped, although the In
dians searched for him, knowing there were three in the
canoe. Sometimes John said they were near enough to
touch him ; they took the old man, Carr, and Gardner, to
their camp, and Martin, the colored man ; Hudsall and
Martin were killed in the most cruel manner ; their bones
remained above ground until after the war was over ; were
then collected and buried.
On the 1st day of July, a large party of our men went
to search for those missing, commanded by Colonels Butler,
Dennison, and Dorrance ; they marched up the river, and
the Indians down by way of the mountain, and never were
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 73
discovered by either party, although not more than one
mile a part ; our party went as far as where the Hardings
wera killed, there finding two Indians sitting under a tree,
supposed to watch to see if any one came to search for the
slain ; they never discovered our party until our advance
got above them ; they strove to make their escape, but,
being surrounded, started for the river. One was killed, and
the other (wounded) took to the water, was followed and
killed ; our men then returned. The Indians went to Sco-
vel's mountain and encamped for the night ; and some time
in the afternoon of the 2d of July, they entered the fort
without the least resistance. In the course of the after
noon, Butler sent a flag to our fort, demanding a surrender
thereof; Captain Harding and Esquire Jenkins met Butler ;
and there being but five able-bodied men, and two old
men, and three boys, left in the fort, and the Indians in
possession of Wintermoot's, it was thought most advisable
to surrender on the following conditions : that nothing
should be taken from the inhabitants of the fort, except
such things as were wanted for the army, and that to be
paid for ; the inhabitants to have liberty to return home
and occupy their farms in peace, but not to take up arms
during the war.
The fort was taken possession of by a Captain Colwell.
The next morning, the 3d July, they set about demolishing'
the fort, and in the course of the day, say one o'clock, orders
came to repair to the Wintermoot fort, as the Yankees, so
called, were coming out for battle. Nothing more was
heard until about three or four o'clock, when the firing
began, and we thought it came near towards us, but soon
found it to draw further off, and in some time appeared
more scattering, which made us think that our army was
defeated, which soon proved to be true. Early the next
morning we could see them fixing their scalps on little
bows made of small sticks, and, with their moccasin awls
and a string, were sewing them round the bows, and
scraping off the flesh and blood, carefully drying them, and
at the same time smoking. As to the fate of some who fell
in the battle I will relate as was told at the time. After.
74 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
the heat of battle was over, every one sought safety by
flight ; some towards the fort, and some to the river. Cap
tain Shoemaker, plunging into the river, was seen and
recognized by a Henry Windecker, whose family had been
fed by Mr. S. ; W. called to him in a friendly way, and
said if he (Captain S.) would come on shore, he should be
protected. Captain S., knowing Windecker, returned, ex
pecting such friendly treatment as he (W.) had received
from him, came to shore and met Windecker, who held out
his left hand to receive Captain S., and with his right hand
sunk his tomahawk into his head, who fell backwards and
floated down the river, and was taken up at Forty fort and
buried.
I will here mention the story of Isaac Tripp. In the fall
after the Indian battle, he said himself, his grandfather,
Isaac Tripp, Esq., Timothy Kies, and Mr. Hocksey, set out
to go to Capouse, now Providence, to see if they could find
any thing left of their effects. They travelled as far as
near where Kies used to live, were discovered by a party
of Indians and tories, and taken. They killed Kies and
Hocksey, told the old man, Esquire Tripp, to return home,
and took young Isaac with them to Niagara.
I will here relate the story of Eleazer West, an inhabi
tant of Eaton, the town in which I lived, who went to Pitts-
ton, when the people moved to the fort ; but finding that
his wife's parents had removed to Wilkesbarre, he went
with his family to Wilkesbarre, and was in the battle, and
was wounded, the ball entering at his heel and passing
through his foot ; he said he ran until, by loss of blood and
fatigue, he lay down in some small bushes not high enough
to cover him ; whilst lying there, a man ran in the same
direction near him, was killed, scalped, and stripped, the
Indian taking the jacket and holding it up between him
(West) and the Indian, and walking on until he had got
past West, without discovering him, who lay until dark,
then taking the mountain and moving on slowly towards
Shawney garrison ; but before he could reach there, the In
dians had got there and set it on fire. He then moved down
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 75
as far as the falls, and passed over the river, and strove to
get to Wilkesbarre, but found all was on fire ; he then set
out, faint and lame, for Pittston, and found it burnt ; he
then set out for the block-house at Parker's place, (so called,)
and soon discovered it demolished ; he then took to the
woods, as his only place of safety, where he soon saw a
horse, and caught it, and stripped some bark for a halter,
mounted his horse, and steered for the Indian path that led
to Bethlehem ; followed it until he came to the road lead
ing from Wilkesbarre to Stroud's, now Stroudsburg, took
that road and got safe through without having his wound
dressed. He afterwards became a preacher, and lived a
number of years, respected by all.
Lebeus Hammond was in the battle, and taken prisoner,
and placed in the ring for torture ; they passing around,
killing one every time they came around, two Indians hold
of each prisoner. Hammond, seeing that his turn would
come next, said he thought he could but die ; he made a
sudden spring, and cleared himself, and ran towards the
river with his keepers after him, and of a sudden turned
towards the pines and escaped. The next spring, he (Ham
mond) and a Mr. Thomas Bennett and son, were at work
on Kingston flats ; were taken and carried into the woods,
and after travelling until they thought themselves safe, put
up for the night ; and in the morning one of the party sat
about mending his moccasins ; and when done, Bennett
asked him for the use of his awl and a piece of string to
sew a button on his coat. The Indian looked at him and
said, ''You no want button for one night." He (Bennett)
thought there was a meaning to his answer. They travelled
that day to Meshoppen, and put up for the night ; in the
evening, the Indians went to the creek to drink, and the
prisoners agreed that night to try to escape. Bennett, being
an old man, was not bound. Hammond was tied, and the
boy placed between two Indians. All but one turned in
for the night. The one that watched had a deer's head
roasting, and would often pick off what was roasted. Ben
nett sat up and took the Indian's spear, that lay by the
Indian's side, laid it on his lap, and sat in a playful man-
/ THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
ner rolling it over ; the Indian often looking under his arm
at Bennett ; but being more thoughtful of his deer head
than of the old man, gave Bennett an opportunity to raise
his spear, and with one thrust put it through him. Then,
loosing Hammond, they fell to work ; with the help of the
boy, soon despatched the Indians, all except one, and he
ran off with a spear in his back, and the prisoners returned
home.
EATON, December 29, 1837.
SIR : In answer to your letter, I have mentioned a few
things relative to the troubles in our country. One thing
I believe I have omitted, which you requested to know ;
that is, the fate of Leach and St. John. They started from
the block-house at the Parker place, in Pittston with a
wagon or cart loaded with household furniture, and travelled
to Kies's saw mill, or near where Mr. John Atherton now
lives. One of the men was on the cart or wagon, with a
small child in his arms, and the other driving the team.
They were met by a party of Indians, and both the men
killed ; the Indian who killed the man on the load took the
child, gave it to his mother, saying, "he no hurt." They
killed one ox, and left the women and children by the load,
and the other oxen stood there until a' man passing along
unyoked them. My impression is they killed the men
because they were carrying away goods. A Mr. Hickman,
wife, and child, were killed at Capouse, now Providence, in
Esquire Tripp's house, and the house set on fire, and all
burnt ; the bodies were nearly consumed. I expect the
Indians that killed Hickman and family were the same that
killed Leach and St. John, as they came from that way,
and were going towards Pittston.
I think I have not mentioned some part of the Indians'
conduct with John Gardner, who was with the Hardings
when killed. I saw him with the Indians when a prisoner,
bound and loaded with plunder, and led by an Indian, as
they would lead or drive a horse. The Indian allowed him
to stop with his wife, who took her little children to him,
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 77
that they might bid him a last farewell. To see a mother
and children standing around him weeping was a sight that
I can never think of without a feeling of grief never to be
o o
forgotten ; but after a short time the word was given "go,
go," a term for marching ; and he was driven with a load
too much for one man to bear, compelled to carry it as far
as Seneca castle, about four miles west of Geneva, where
he became so worn out that he could go no further, and
was tomahawked ! His life was only reserved for torture.
The Hardings were despatched, fighting for liberty ! I
have within a few years past erected a stone to their
memory, with this inscription, " Sweet to the sleep of those
who prefer death to slavery," They were brought down
to the fort on the ist of July, and buried on the 2d, just
below Jenkins's ferry, by the road leading to Kingston,
where there is now a goodly number buried.
ELISHA HARDING.
Those who fell at Exeter were, Miner Robbins, Benjamin
Harding, Stukeley Harding (brother of Elisha Harding,
Esq., who gives the committee this account,) James Hudsall,
James Hudsall, jun., a man of color by the name of Martin.
Prisoners — Daniel Weller, John Gardiner, (afterwards killed,)
and Daniel Carr, who was kept till the war was over, and
then returned.
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Benjamin Bailey, Blacksmith 1 5 oo
Captain John Franklin, I silver watch I 10
Sarah Durkee, I silver watch I 10
£6S oos.
A true list of the polls and estate of the town of Westmore
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14 steers, three years old, at ...
1 8 steers and heifers, two years
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57 steers and heifers, one year old,
at
173 horse kind, 3 years old and up
wards, at
4 horse kind, two years old, at .
7 horse kind, one year old, at .
127 swine, one year old and up
wards, at
9893^ acres and parts of an acre .
of plough land, at
191 y<i acres of upland mowing and
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[95 bush pasture, at o 02
2 silver watches, at I IO
Assessments — traders, tradesmen,
&c
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4,534 17
JOHN FRANKLIN,
CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT,
JONAH ROGERS,
Listers.
84 THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
THIRTIETH CONGRESS— FIRST SESSION.
REPORT No. 823.
[To accompany H. R. bill No. 640.]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
HEIRS OF CAPTAIN SAMUEL RANSOM.
AUGUST 8, 1848.
Mr. BUTLER, from the Committee on Revolutionary Claims,
made the following
REPORT :
The Committee on Revolutionary Claims, to whom ivas re
ferred tJie petition of the heirs of Captain Samuel Ransom,
deceased, report:
That the petitioners claim seven years' half pay due
Captain Samuel Ransom, who was an officer in the war of
the revolution and killed at the battle of Wyoming, on the
3d day of July, 1778. It appears on the records of Con
gress, volume one, page 453, of the journal, that Congress,
on the 23d August, 1776: Resolved, That two companies
on the continental establishment be raised in the town of
Westmoreland, and stationed in proper places for the
defence of the inhabitants of said town and parts adjacent,
till further orders from Congress ; the commissioned officers
of the said two companies to be immediately appointed by
Congress. On the 26th day of August, 1776, Congress
proceeded to the election of officers, when Jonathan Day
ton was elected regimental paymaster of Colonel Dayton's
THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 85
regiment; Robert Durkee and Samuel Ransom, captains of
the two companies ordered to be raised in the town of
Westmoreland; James Willis and Perrin Ross, first lieu
tenants ; Asahel Buck and Simon Spaulding, second lieuten
ants ; and Heman Swift and Matthias Hollenback, ensigns
of said companies. Other resolutions show that these
companies were on the continental establishment and were
furnished with supplies. Finally, on the 1 2th of December,
1776, the following resolve was passed, viz: "Resolved,
that the two companies raised in the town of Westmoreland
be ordered to join General Washington with all possible
expedition." They did join General Washington's army,
and were in the engagement at the Millstone, in January,
1777. They continued with the continental army until the
threatened invasion of the Wyoming valley by the British
and Indians was about to take place, when they hastened
to the defence of their families and homes. Some of them
arrived in time to participate in the bloody fight of July 3,
1788, on the plains of Wyoming, and many of them, among
whom was Captain Ransom, lost their lives in the battle.
These companies having been raised by Congress and placed
on the continental establishment, the officers having been
elected by Congress, having served in the continental army,
and been killed in battle with the common enemy, are, in
the opinion of the committee, entitled to the benefits of all
the resolves and promises made by Congress to the most
favored of the revolutionary officers and soldiers. It appears,
too, that neither the seven years' half pay, or the five years'
commutation, have ever been paid to Captain Ransom, or
to any one in his right. The committee, therefore, are of
the opinion, that the heirs and legal representatives are
entitled to seven years' half pay due to Samuel Ransom, as
a captain on the continental establishment, and report a
bill accordingly.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY
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